The report, a supplement to the 2005-2006 British Crime Survey, has been released in response to the relatively new crimes which have evolved with recent changes in technology.
The new report has highlighted that four percent of households owning a mobile phone experienced a mobile phone theft in the last year. Statistically, this is a significant decrease compared with the five percent of households that said they experienced a phone theft in the 04-05 survey.
However, despite the encouraging statistics, there remains a large problem with mobile phone theft. Estimates suggest that between 2005 and 2006, 800 000 phone users in England and Wales fell victim to mobile phone theft. Of those surveyed only 49 percent reported the theft to the police.
The BCS is a victimisation survey in which adults living in private households are asked about their experiences of crimes. Consequently, the BCS does not cover theft and fraud targeted at the commercial world.
While the threat to individuals from identity fraud is relatively small, and decreasing, card users still worry about fraud.
Fifty-seven percent of users said they were worried or very worried about becoming a victim of fraud- the highest level of concern about any crime in the British Crime Survey. Despite this worry, statistics show that only four percent of card users surveyed had been a victim of fraud in the last year.
The largest fraud type was ‘card-not-present fraud’, which involves the use of stolen card details on the internet, by phone or by mail order. As the largest fraud in the UK over the past three years, losses from this type of fraud hit GB pound 212.6 million in 2006, up 16 per cent in one year.
Latest estimates suggest that identity fraud costs the UK economy GB pound 1.7 billion per year. However, the true extent of the problem may never be known.
Police recorded statistics of fraud are generally considered to be a poor indication of the real level and trends in fraud. Cheque and credit card frauds are legally defined as deception, and many of these deceptions go unreported to the police, either because the victims are unaware that they are being deceived, or because the card holders, once they realise, are more likely to inform the bank or card company than the police.
Experts believe that the success of chip and PIN technology has caused criminals to shift their tactics. In a recent attempt to ‘streamline’ the investigation of fraud, the Home Office have requested that all cases should be reported to the victim’s bank or building society.
However, the new document shows that for 2005-2006, 40% of those who had their personal details used without their permission had the issue resolved in under a week.
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