Data from the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) at the City of London Police has revealed that over £373million was lost by repeat victims of fraud in the financial year 2019/20, with the average repeat victim losing £21,121.
However, when someone was reporting at least one investment fraud, this figure jumped 300 percent to £84,604.
As part of a national campaign raising awareness of investment fraud, involving the City of London Police, Financial Conduct Authority and the National Economic Crime Centre, staff at the NFIB undertook analysis of the huge dataset they received from the national fraud and cyber crime reporting centre, Action Fraud.
The NFIB discovered that the average loss by a repeat victim of fraud who reported at least one investment fraud, was 14 times the average loss by all victims of fraud.
Worryingly, over 50 percent of investment fraud victims decline victim support during the reporting process.
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Pauline Smith, Head of Action Fraud, said: “The victim support service offered by Action Fraud is vital in preventing people falling victim to a second, third or even fourth fraud.
“Since its inception in 2014, our specialist victim advocates have engaged with over 102,000 victims and only 17 of these individuals have gone on to report another fraud.
“When you consider these findings from the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, it’s clear we need to do more to engage victims of investment fraud, so they can receive our specialist advice and support to prevent them falling victim to further fraud.”
Analysing the data from repeat victims who had reported at least one investment fraud, the NFIB were able to establish links between certain at-risk age groups and fraud types, which they say could help police better protect victims of economic crime.
Their research found men were twice as likely to report being victim to at least one investment fraud, and lost three times as much as women.
However, women were twice as likely to report falling victim to both an investment fraud and a dating fraud. Out of both men and women in this dataset, 24 percent were aged 40-49 years, but accounted for 58 percent of the reported losses.
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