Computer fraud on the rise as 1.5m fooled by online scams

More that one in ten people are falling victim to online scams, the Office for National Statistics has said.

A total of 6.3 million crimes were perpetrated against adults in the 12 months to March 2016

The statistics showed that there were 3.8 million incidents of fraud in England and Wales, most related to bank and credit card account fraud, with 2.5 million incidents. These were followed by “non-investment” fraud, such as online shopping scams, the ONS said.

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The report also recorded two million incidents of computer misuse - with 1.4 million of these related to a computer or internet-enabled device being infected with a virus.

The remaining 0.6 million crimes involved “unauthorised access to personal information” - such as hacking.

Policing minister Brandon Lewis said: “Fraud and cyber offences are not a new threat and the government has been working to get ahead of the game, committing to spend £1.9bn on cybersecurity and cybercrime over the next five years.”