Thousands caught up in web of crime

If the figures for Warwickshire are representative of the picture nationally, it would suggest that on-line criminals have successfully targeted 9.6 million victims in the past year, costing them some £300 million.

Cyber Crime — The Real Story was commissioned jointly by Warwickshire County Council and the Office of the Warwickshire Police and Crime Commissioner.

There were 776 respondents and other key findings were:

• 311,100 people had been targeted by phishing scams, with 13,200 — one in ten — going on to become victims.

• 25,500 people suffered financial loss in an on-line scam in the past year.

• 241,600 people feel at risk on-line, but 152,800 are not influenced by the location when deciding what websites to access.

• Nearly one third of parents have neither applied on-line restrictions nor spoken to their children about internet safety.

Warwickshire Police and Crime Commissioner, Ron Ball, said: “The numbers of potential victims uncovered by the survey is staggering and shows that cyber crime now represents one of the most significant challenges we face locally, nationally and in fact globally.

“Many people don’t realise they have become a victim of cyber crime, are too embarrassed to come forward or simply do not believe that anything can be done about it, meaning that the scale of the problem has until now been hard to quantify and somewhat hidden from view.

“Armed with the data from this survey, we now have a more accurate picture, which will allow us to target our resources more effectively.

“It’s clear that cyber crime and internet fraud are booming and the nature of policing will have to change to keep up with the increasingly sophisticated ways criminals are exploiting online vulnerabilities.”

Details of the survey will be shared at a conference of practitioners from across policing and local government at the UK headquarters of IBM in Warwick today.

Alongside the findings, there will be an overview of the work being carried out across the county to tackle cyber crime by police and local government, while training will be given on how to spot cyber crime and how to prevent it by Rob Hadfield, head of content for Get Safe Online.

The conference was part of a programme of measures designed to increase awareness about cybercrime and how people can identify, report and protect themselves and their businesses from becoming victims to criminals online.

Cllr Izzi Seccombe, leader of Warwickshire County Council, added: “While most people have been aware that it is a growing threat, the numbers of victims uncovered by the survey show that cyber crime is something that has the potential to affect everyone.”