UK online shopping fraudsters look west and north

The far west of England is most at risk of online shopping scams, according to analysis of police data carried out by UK researchers.

The Devon and Cornwall area, on the south-west peninsula of England, was found to be “most at risk” of such ploys, according to CartridgeSave, which analysed data from the National Fraud and Cyber Crime Reporting Center in the UK.

More than a quarter of online crimes reported to police in the past year in the region involved tricks aimed at digital shoppers, or more than 2,000 offences in total.

Second place went to Durham in the far north of England, with a similar proportion of reported cybercrimes there consisting of duping would-be-buyers into handing their cash over to crooks.

In third place was the southern portion of Wales, a semi-autonomous principality that is part of the UK but distinct from England, with police there reporting more than 8,000 cybercrimes in the past year, again roughly a quarter of the total cybercrimes flagged.

It should be emphasized that CartridgeSave is basing its contention on the proportion of crimes reported by region that involved e-shopping, and not the actual number.

Commenting on its findings, Ian Cowley, managing director of CartridgeSave, said: “It’s important to be extra vigilant while online shopping nowadays, with scammers’ methods getting more and more complicated and believable.”

These methods had evolved over the past few years to include “spoofing entire websites and posing as other people.”

“Make sure you know where you’re purchasing from online, and be extra careful around websites you are not familiar with,” said Cowley.