Victims of Fraud

Fraudsters scammed nearly 49000 older people in the UK last year - equivalent to six victims every hour of the day across the UK, 5 Live Investigates has discovered. The figure has almost doubled in three years, but one expert says the true number of victims was likely to be in the millions. 5 live Investigates asked Action Fraud, the UK police's cyber crime reporting centre, for a breakdown of the five most common types of frauds affecting older people. During 2017/18, advanced fee frauds, which include victims being told they have won the lottery but must pay a fee to receive it, were the most common scams with almost 20,000 cases - including 370 victims aged over 90. Computer software service fraud, in which victims are told their computer has been compromised by a virus, was the second most common crime. In one year alone, victims lost more than £135m in these type of scams.