Thousands of reports of cyber crime made to West Midlands Police in a year
A recent study by a storage firm has shown that cyber crime has cost West Midlands locals more over £100k since last October.
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According to the study, by Storage Vault, West Midlands Police has been hit with 2,414 reports in just the last year, which has cost its residents £105.5k, which proves as a reminder for keen Black Friday shoppers to be careful when they dish out their card details online.
As well as that, Staffordshire topped the total up by thousands, as the area saw 1,047 reports, which altogether caused a loss of £20.9k
The scary figures comes as Black Country residents prepare to part with their hard-earned cash over the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend.
Storage Vault analysed data from the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau to find out which areas in the U.K. had been hit hardest by cybercrime.
Police forces throughout the U.K. dealt with 54,574 incidents of cybercrime between October 2023 and November 2024, with associated losses of £6 million.
England saw the lion’s share of reports, with English forces dealing with 50,004 of the total incidents, accounting for £5.2 million of the overall losses. Wales came second nationally with 1,765 reports and losses of £14.2k in total.
Anthony McAteer of Storage Vault gave his thoughts on the analysis, he said: "There are a lot of reasons that contribute to us increasingly living our lives online, both privately and while at work, but just because we’re operating in a digital space, it doesn’t mean there aren’t threats we need to be aware of.
“We see customers who prefer to store paper records of their information securely, for the simple reason that it can be a simpler option than securing it against digital attacks.
“We’re approaching the part of the year where we spend the most collectively, and while it’s easy to be distracted by the festive season, people need to make sure they’re remaining aware of the risks when they’re searching for gifts for their friends and family.”
The survey's findings come just a week after the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has called on shoppers to take additional steps to protect themselves from fraud.
