Cyber-crime care unit to be launched

A CARE unit to support the growing number of people who have fallen victim to fraud and cyber-crime is to be launched by West Midlands Police.

Police officers and volunteers will advise victims who have been defrauded by scammers and help them avoid being preyed on again.

The unit is intended to provide a follow-up service that is traditionally given to victims of crimes such as burglary and violent offences.

West Midlands and Manchester police forces are taking part in the project, aimed at delivering prevention and awareness advice to the most vulnerable members of society amid spiralling cyber-crime nationally.

Detective Inspector Neil Postins, of West Midlands Police’s Economic Crime Unit, said: “There is an issue around the rising cost of fraud to the economy.

“Depending on which website or organisation you look at it’s estimated to be around £193 billion a year. If you look at drugs and terrorism we understand they are massive risks, but sitting alongside that now, which it wasn’t a number of years ago, is fraud. If you look at the three biggest risks to the UK economy, fraud is there.”

West Midlands Police received around 650 reports of cyber-crime between October 2016 and March 2017. Nationally, the annual cost of online fraud alone is estimated to rates of cost £10 billion, according to the Public Accounts Committee.

The new Economic Crime Victim Care Unit will be launched in the new year.

Det Insp Postins said: “We are going to use volunteers from different walks of life, so we are working with a few universities to try and recruit students of particular age ranges who are savvy online so we can understand the vulnerabilities in the 20 to 29 age group and the social media side of things.

“We are also looking for a number of volunteers from the more mature end of society who perhaps have a little more life experience and they will hopefully work with the university students to provide a service that victims don’t traditionally get.”