Grow th of broadband opens door on islands to surge in cyberfraud
FRAUD in the Scottish islands is up as much as 700 per cent as homeowners fall victim to cyber-criminals for the first time.
Broadband now allows gangs access to remote areas that were previously off-limits, and police figures show fraud rising in places where it was previously low or almost unknown.
While the total number of cases is low, in line with smaller populations, the percentage rise in fraud across Scotland’s islands was more than 700 per cent, year on year.
Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles recorded just one case each of fraud between April and September last year.
But this year there were eight cases in both the Western Isles and Orkney, while Shetland recorded nine.
Police in Orkney say money lost to fraud on the island in the first ten months of this year reached £350,000.
In Inverclyde, 65 cases of fraud were recorded – a rise of 124 per cent compared to last year.
In the Borders, Dumfries and Galloway and Argyll and Bute cases increased by more than 25 per cent.
Only five council areas out of 32 – Aberdeen City, East Lothian, Highland, North Ayrshire
‘Nowhere in the country is out of reach of criminals’
and South Ayrshire – saw a drop in fraud cases, while Moray had the same number, 30, as last year. Across Scotland fraud cases increased by almost a quarter year-on-year, with a total of 5,007 crimes.
Police yesterday said austerity has contributed to the rise, warning the economic climate is ‘ripe for fraud’.
But internet banking, online shopping and the roll-out of broadband to rural areas has also given criminal gangs new opportunities.
Gareth Shaw, money expert at consumer organisation Which?, said: ‘Nowhere in the country is out of reach of criminals using increasingly sophisticated techniques to scam their victims. In the digital age, people are falling victim and losing life-changing sums of money to scams on their computers, phones and other devices.’
Ian Thornton-Trump, computer security expert at insurer AmTrust International, said ‘vishing’ – where scammers con people into parting with money or obtain key information such as website passwords using the phone – was an ‘entry level’ type of cybercrime as all that was needed was a phone and a few of the target’s personal details.