5.7m families fall victim to internet scammers

AS many as 5.7 million families are believed to have fallen foul of internet scammers, with the average loss topping £1,000.

Shock figures uncovered by the Daily Express show fraud and computer misuse offences rocketing by 89 per cent in the past two years.

Criminal gangs have benefitted as the nation’s shopping habits have switched to the internet.

This has been compounded by the loss of high street banking, with 5,162 bank and building society branches closing since January 2015, with a further 206 set to shut by the end of this year.

Many pensioners are less savvy about online security and are seen as easy prey, but surprisingly data shows younger people are falling victim in larger numbers than their parents and grandparents.

Meanwhile, a recent poll found a third of people would still rather do all their banking in person, with 44 per cent of over-55s preferring traditional banking compared with just one in five of those aged 18 to 34.

It is estimated 93 per cent of Britons have used online banking in the past 12 months.

The DNS Research Federation conducted research in conjunction with the Express to expose the scale of the fraud.Their findings suggest families in London are most likely to have been targeted, with almost half of Londoners, a third of Midlanders and a quarter of Scots admitting to losing money online. For victims the average loss was £1,169 per person. But some lost tens of thousands of pounds.

Younger people are more likely than older people to be a victim of a scam – but this is because they spend more time on the internet.

However, they are also more likely to spot it and pull back before any serious damage is done.

More than two-thirds (68 per cent) of those under 25 said they were targeted.

While the likelihood of suffering fraud actually steadily declines with age, worryingly it still impacts 28 per cent of people aged over 65.

Kate Halliday of Puffin Research said: “This can affect people at a deeply emotional level, leaving them feeling totally overwhelmed and vulnerable.”