Elderly fraud victims losing £1m a day to “tidal wave” of scams
Elderly fraud victims are facing a “tidal wave of scams” with losses of over £1 million a day, shocking new figures uncovered by the Liberal Democrats have revealed.
The party accused the Conservatives of being “asleep at the wheel” in the fight against fraud, and called for an urgent strategy to protect victims including the vulnerable and elderly from online scams.
The figures were revealed through a Freedom of Information request by the Liberal Democrats to Action Fraud, covering all fraud cases where the victim was 65 or older over the past four years. They show a staggering £1.7 billion has been lost in total, meaning over-65s across the UK are losing £1.2 million to fraud each day.
The analysis shows that elderly fraud is on the rise, jumping from 36,105 recorded cases in 2019 up to a staggering 57,430 cases in 2022 - or more than 157 elderly fraud victims a day. Financial losses were also at a new high in 2022 - with pensioners losing nearly £460 million, up 10% from £417 million in 2021.
Since the beginning of 2019, more than 212,000 cases of fraud against pensioners have been logged.
Three police forces have seen over £65 million lost from elderly victims in that same time period - London Metropolitan, Greater Manchester and Sussex. A significant number of cases could not be attributed to a single police force, amounting to 8,004 reports and over £244 million in losses.
On average, each elderly victim has lost a shocking £8,314 - significantly higher than average trends of fraud against victims of all ages. According to the most recent ONS statistics, only 9% of fraud victims overall incurred a loss of £1,000 or more.
Liberal Democrats have criticised the Conservative Government for shirking its responsibility to tackle fraud. The Home Office has failed to publish the Fraud Strategy it promised in March 2022, which replaced 2021 plans for a national Fraud Action Plan that never materialised.
The party is demanding that the Government urgently publish its Fraud Strategy after months of delays. They are also calling for the creation of an Online Crime Agency that would coordinate work across the country on tackling online fraud.
Commenting on the shocking figures, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson Alistair Carmichael MP said:
“Elderly people are facing a tidal wave of scams, as callous criminals target them for their hard-earned cash. Yet too often, the despicable fraudsters who target vulnerable pensioners are being let off the hook.
“The government is asleep at the wheel in the fight against fraud, and it’s our nation's elderly who are paying the eye-watering price.
“Conservative ministers need to finally publish their long overdue strategy to tackle fraud, including measures to protect elderly and vulnerable victims from online scams.”
“With pensioners losing over £1 million to fraud each day, the cost of delay is unacceptable.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors
First reported in the Mail on Sunday here.
The Freedom of Information data can be found in full here. Statistics were derived from analysis of Action Fraud crime reports and all classified Home Office Crime Codes. The data set was then filtered to show reports where the victims were aged between 65 and 102.
Data on overall national fraud losses can be found here.
