Certain types of fraud on rise in wake of pandemic, figures suggest

The number of victims being tricked into paying upfront for goods that never materialise is growing in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the body for official statistics.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said figures indicate post-pandemic patterns in crime were starting to emerge, with some crimes returning to pre-pandemic levels while others may have been affected by changes in people’s behaviour during lockdowns.

Overall, levels of fraud being recorded are similar to those seen prior to the pandemic, the findings suggest.

But there have been changes in the prevalence of certain types of fraud reported, including a “six-fold increase” in advance fee fraud – where victims are tricked into paying upfront for services and goods that never materialise.

Katie Kempen, chief executive of charity Victim Support, said: “Advance fee fraud is a prime example of the kind of scams that are committed at an industrial level on a daily basis.

“Yet prosecution rates are abysmal and the resources allocated to tackling this crime are minuscule – this simply does not add up.

“The Government, tech companies and police forces need to get a grip on this insidious crime. That means putting more resources into preventing, investigating and prosecuting fraud – as well as supporting those who unfortunately become victims.”

Figures for overall crime published on Thursday from the ONS Crime Survey for England and Wales for the year ending March 2023 suggest people aged 16 and over experienced 8.7 million offences, down 15% from 10.2 million in a survey for the year ending March 2020.

The report measures experiences of crime in the 12 months before interview, meaning the latest survey – which was conducted between April 2022 and March 2023 – reflects crimes that could have occurred as far back as April 2021.

Estimates from the crime survey suggest there were 391,000 advance fee fraud offences in England and Wales, more than six times the number recorded in the survey for the year to March 2020 (60,000).

Experiences of crimes, as measured by the ONS survey, have been on a broad downwards trend since the mid-1990s.

Nick Stripe, from the ONS’ Centre for Crime and Justice, said: “Some crime types are returning to their pre-pandemic levels, while others may have been affected by changes in people’s behaviour during the pandemic and the subsequent lifting of social restrictions.

“Overall crime continues to be well below levels seen before the pandemic. This is in large part due to sharp falls in theft and criminal damage.

“Total fraud has returned to pre-pandemic levels with a 14% decrease in bank and credit account fraud largely offset by a six-fold increase in advance fee fraud – where victims are tricked into paying upfront for services or goods that never materialise – from 60,000 to 391,000 offences.

“For crimes which are well reported and recorded by the police, we can gain additional insight from police data. Knife crime, robbery and firearms offences are all down on March 2020 levels, but have seen increases in the past year. Imitation guns are driving the rise in firearms offences.”

The overall number of crimes recorded by police in England and Wales in 2022/23 stood at 6.7 million, compared with 6.3 million in 2021/22 and 6.1 million in the pre-pandemic year of 2019/20, though this is “unlikely to reflect a genuine increase in crime”, the ONS said.

This is because the rise was largely influenced by increases in the offence categories, which are “most subject to changes in reporting and recording practices”.

Some 195,315 sexual offences were recorded by police in England and Wales in 2022/23, up slightly on 193,559 in 2021/22 but a jump of 20% from 163,358 in the pre-pandemic year of 2019/20.

The rise reflects improvements in police recording practices and increased reporting by victims, which means the figures “do not provide a reliable measure of trends in these types of crime”, the ONS said.

The data will also have been influenced by “the impact of high-profile incidents, media coverage and campaigns on people’s willingness to report both recent and historical incidents to the police, as well as a potential increase in the number of victims”.

Similar factors are likely to have contributed to the rise in police-recorded rape offences, which stood at 68,949 in 2022/23, down slightly from 69,973 in 2021/22 but up 16% from 59,191 in 2019/20.

A Home Office spokesman said: “This Government is absolutely committed to cracking down on scams.

“Our Fraud Strategy, published in May, sets out how we will further reduce fraud by blocking scams at source, working with police and industry to bring more offenders to justice and ensuring the public have the advice and support they need.”