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by willforster on 16 February, 2022
The Lib Dems and I have accused the Government of forgetting victims of fraud in Surrey after senior Tory Ministers overlooked fraud and computer misuse offences when making false claims on falling crime.
Which is why the Lib Dems and I have also called on Woking’s MP, Jonathan Lord to apologise to the thousands of people in the area who fell victim to fraud last year.
There were 8,957 fraud and computer misuse offences referred to Surrey Police last year – up almost 14% on the year before, analysis by the Lib Dems reveals. This is the equivalent of 25 cases each day across Surrey. These victims are part of the four million people across England and Wales who were duped by fraudsters and online scammers last year.
It comes after the UK Statistics Authority recently officially rebuked Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Home Secretary Priti Patel for misleadingly claiming that crime had fallen, following a letter of complaint by Lib Dem Home Affairs spokesperson Alistair Carmichael. Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng then claimed last weekend that fraud is not something people experience in their day-to-day lives.
Conservative Ministers are causing immense hurt to fraud victims in Woking, Surrey and across the country by dismissing this cruel crime. Many people around here have lost their life savings to remorseless scammers and suffered huge financial and emotional harm.
The almost 9,000 victims of fraud in Surrey last year deserve a proper apology, not only from Woking’s MP but from the Prime Minister himself – this Government has to start taking their plight seriously.
1 Comment
The level of fraud crime is much higher than that reported to police. If someone attempted to Rob a bank or shop, but was unsuccessful it would still count as a crime. I frequently get phone calls, texts and emails trying to scam / defraud me, but because I have been able to realise the attempted fraud, things don’t progress to the point of me losing money.
But when I try to report this as a crime the systems do not treat this as crime because I haven’t actually experienced financial loss.
However I have the phone number of the scammers and the information could, if PROPERLY FOLLOWED UP, prevent actual crimes from happening to vulnerable people who would be among the next contacted by the fraudsters.
This is happening on an industrial scale from call centres.
People are subject to attempted fraud on a weekly if not daily basis and this is at best extremely annoying and at worst worrying, stressful and distressing.