My friend was scammed and her account cleaned out in minutes, the Government has to crack down on scammers - Andrew Vine

It’s been a nightmare and like many other victims, she’s kicking herself for being taken in, but it’s understandable how it happened.

The fraudster was plausible, not apparently calling from somewhere on the other side of the world, which would immediately raise suspicions, and already had her account details. He even gave her a number to call if she wanted to check everything was above board that appeared genuine.

This was a sophisticated and well-rehearsed routine by fraudsters who have worked out exactly how to win the trust of victims and exploit them before vanishing.

The individual – or gang – who stole nearly everything in her account will never be caught.

She’s reported the theft to the police, who though sympathetic, have been candid enough to admit they can’t do anything because there is no way of finding the culprits hiding behind a phone number that has since gone dead. They could be anywhere in the world.

So she becomes a statistic, one more person to add to the 4.1m victims of fraud in England and Wales last year, which accounted for 43 per cent of all crime and came at a cost of £6.8bn to those targeted and the criminal justice system.

And what the police told her about the likelihood of catching the fraudsters is borne out by Home Office figures showing just 3,641 cases resulted in a charge.

We can only guess at how much heartbreak lies behind the statistics – of people being drained of every penny, of the elderly or vulnerable being prime targets, of the countless moments of awful realisation that everything has gone and there is no possibility of getting it back.

Fraud is out of control and recent weeks have shown it is not just individuals being targeted.

The cyber attacks on M&S and the Co-Op that have seriously disrupted both businesses proves even large and well-resourced organisations are not immune to this insidious crimewave.

In their own way, they are paying as heavy a price as anyone whose bank account is emptied. M&S has put the cost of the attack at £300m and faces weeks more of disruption before it is back to business as usual.

The attacks are being investigated by our National Crime Agency and the FBI, so there’s a chance of somebody being brought to justice.

Regrettably, there is no such firepower being directed at those targeting the likes of you and I with phone and online scams, a point made tellingly last week by a think tank, the Police Foundation.

It found police forces ill-equipped to fight fraud, with half of officers believing they lack the skills to investigate scams and 90 per cent saying they did not have the resources to bring criminals to justice.

The foundation called for the creation of a national crime prevention agency to tackle fraud and cyber attacks, which should be ranked alongside counter-terrorism as a priority, and training of specialised officers to investigate it.

As if to underline the scale of the threat, the day before the foundation’s report, Parliament’s Treasury committee heard from banking chiefs, including the heads of Lloyds and NatWest, that fraud is going to get worse unless social media giants take action against it.

The charge sheet against social media for being home to disturbing and dangerous content is already a long one, but if it is also being used to defraud millions of people every year, then the government really does have to start getting much tougher.

Nobody can have any confidence in companies such as Meta cracking down on fraudsters using their platforms, given their woeful record in removing harmful material which has wrecked too many lives.

Fraud is wrecking lives too, and the government cannot stand by and let that happen without bringing pressure to bear on these immensely wealthy companies to play their part in stopping it.

It would also do well to follow the Police Foundation’s recommendation to make tracking down the scammers a much greater priority.