Lincolnshire residents and businesses have lost £17 million to scams over the past 12 months as victims fall foul of a rise in fraud cases.
According to a report from Lincolnshire County Council, Action Fraud confirmed that more than 4,200 reports of the crime have been made by people and traders in the county over the past year, writes Local Democracy Reporter James Turner.
Of these, 70 per cent were cyber-enabled, with 849 reports related to online shopping and auctions, and 271 cases involving hacking, social media and email fraud.
This comes as reports of fraud across England and Wales have risen by four per cent, with 312,009 offences recorded compared to 300,069 in the year ending March 2023.
Just last week, Lincolnshire County Council issued a warning advising residents not to respond to texts about parking fines. The council said it was aware of a scam in which people are asked to pay a fine or face prosecution.
The authority called the texts ‘nonsense’ and confirmed that the council would never contact people via text message regarding a parking penalty charge notice.
A variety of communication and engagement activities have been held over the past year to raise awareness of digitally enabled fraud, including in key locations along the east coast, as well as in Horncastle and Sleaford.
This included community talks by officers from Lincolnshire County Council and Lincolnshire Police across the county, with predicted future financial savings from this work estimated at £81,526.
The report, which will go to LCC’s Public Protect and Communities Scrutiny Committee next week, explained: “Where partners have not been able to be physically present in communities, they have utilised other means of communicating fraud prevention messages effectively with Lincolnshire residents such as local radio, social media, static website information, Lincs Alert, newspapers and online engagement.
“A new subgroup is working to support victims of fraud to ensure they do not become repeat victims and early anecdotal evidence is showing collaboration to meet the needs of iindividuals and maximise support.”
