Residents across Northern Ireland have been targeted through a diverse range of scams over the past year, resulting in millions being lost to fraudsters.

More than 5,200 reports of fraud were made to the PSNI from November 2023 to the end of October 2024, with the total reported loss close to £19 million.

The figures, from Action Fraud, cover the 12-month period from November 1 2023 to October 31 2024.

Chair of ScamwiseNI Partnership, PSNI Superintendent Joanne Gibson, said: “Criminals don’t care who they steal from, or consider the cruel impact of their crime.

More than 5,200 reports of fraud have been made to the Police Service of Northern Ireland in the 12-month period from November 2023 to the end of October this year. (Pic: Pixabay).

placeholder image — More than 5,200 reports of fraud have been made to the Police Service of Northern Ireland in the 12-month period from November 2023 to the end of October this year. (Pic: Pixabay).

"Not only is there the financial impact, but losing money to fraud can be traumatic and emotionally distressing. For some people, it can be devastating.”

In the reports made to the PSNI over the last year, a diverse range of scams have resulted in losses ranging from hundreds of pounds in ticket scams to hundreds of thousands of pounds in impersonation and investment scams.

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Like many frauds, these are committed at distance, with criminals using phones, social media, emails and text messages.

Some examples include a bank impersonation scam where a person was called by someone claiming to be from their bank telling them there had been suspicious activity on their account, and asking for money to be moved into different accounts to keep it safe. The total amount involved was more than £100,000. An online romance scam resulted in the transfer of more than £50,000 – allegedly to help with a business opportunity.

Another example from the last year resulted in hundreds of thousands of pounds lost in an investment scam where the person believed they were part of a genuine online business opportunity, only to find out it was a scam.

Superintendent Gibson stated: “Scams are presented in so many different ways and, with advances in technology, they can appear genuine and as if they’re legitimate.

"In terms of the investment scams we've seen reported, often these may seem like a good way to boost savings, however, they are often high-risk investments with limited regulation or safeguards.

"While a variety of approaches are used, some of them extremely sophisticated, the end goal for criminals never changes and that’s to access personal and financial details which are used to commit a more sophisticated scam where the losses can be substantial as we’ve seen from the total losses reported in the last year.

“It's sickening because people who have placed their trust in someone, or believed an opportunity to be genuine, discover in the most cruel way a criminal has stolen their money."

Superintendent Gibson added: “Police, along with partners in our ScamwiseNI Partnership, encourage everyone to have a conversation about scams to raise awareness. This way we can empower each other with the knowledge of how to spot scams and stop them, and adopt measures to protect our information. This can include something as simple as having different passwords for different accounts, and never giving out your personal and financial information over the phone to someone claiming to represent your bank. Being aware can stop the scammer.

"If you’ve lost money in a scam report it - to police, your bank and Action Fraud. This is key to stopping the fraudster's ability to steal more of your money."

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