Over GBP 34.5 million stolen in pandemic scams, UK police reports

The UK’s police forces have recorded more than 6,000 cases of COVID-19 related fraud and cyber-crime during the pandemic, leading to a total loss of GBP 34.5 million since 1 March 2020.

The statistics cover activity in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, but not Scotland. According to BBC, the National Cyber Security Centre is tackling about 30 ‘significant attacks’ a month against the country’s pandemic response infrastructure.

These involves attempts to breach the NHS, vaccine producers and vaccine supply chains, among other organisations, plus bank loan scams, emails attacks, fake tech support, and romance scams.

Other figures disclosed by City of London Police, which co-ordinates efforts to combat fraud, include:

• more than 150 related arrests were made since the pandemic began;

• more than 2,000 websites, phone numbers and email addresses linked to the crimes were taken down;

• there was a total of 416,000 reports of fraud and cyber-crime.

The activity peaked between April and May 2020, and January 2021 - both times when lockdowns were in force.

Even so, the National Crime Agency estimates that just one in five fraud cases are typically reported to the police.