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Online fraud is "exponentially" rising in the UK, according to the City of London Police. Commissioner Adrian Leppard revealed that around half of the £70 billion (around $114 billion) lost to fraud in the UK each year was through online scams. Retailers have also been hit hard, with online fraud increasing 30 percent in the past year alone.
The most lucrative fraud, however, appears to come from targeting the elderly. Leppard detailed how £3.5 billion (around $5.6 billion) was defrauded from retired citizens through "get rich quick" schemes and share scams. On average, each victim lost £25,000 (around $40,300), with half of the targets being over the age of 65. The nature of the scams may not be new — there’s a thriving industry built around them, after all — but the latest numbers are troubling, as is the admission that the UK is struggling to deal with the problem.
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