Scams that ask people to pay an upfront fee for fake goods or services have risen sixfold since Covid-19 but overall fraud has fallen back to pre-pandemic levels.
The Office for National Statistics said that 391,000 offences of advance-fee fraud were committed in the 12 months to March this year — the equivalent of 1,071 every day or 44 per hour.
This was a 549 per cent increase on the 60,000 advance-fee fraud offences committed in the same period running up to March 2020 when Covid-19 lockdown restrictions were first imposed. Advance-fee fraud is when fraudsters target victims to make advance or upfront payments for goods, services or financial gains that do not materialise.
These include scams where victims transfer funds to fraudsters for postal
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