posted on 30 June 2017, updated on 14 September 2017

A report issued by the National Audit Office (NAO) has found that fraud cost businesses £144bn and individuals £10bn in 2016, with most fraud taking place online.

In the year to 30 September 2016, the ONS reported an estimated 11.8 million incidents of crime in England and Wales. For the first time, the official figures revealed an estimated 3.6 million fraud incidents, of which 1.9 million incidents (53%) were cyber-related.

Incidents of criminals using stolen card details to make fraudulent transactions jumped 103% between 2011 and 2016, from 709,000 to approximately 1.4 million.

According to NAO head Amyas Morse the “low value but high volume crime” of online fraud has been “overlooked” by government, police and the private sector.

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