28th May 2021 at 12:00pm

Criminals used the Covid-19 pandemic to target victims online, through impersonation scams, romance fraud, and investment scams.

Impersonation scam cases, in which criminals impersonate trusted organisations to trick victims into handing over their money, almost doubled to 39,364 cases in 2020, the largest increase of all scam types. During the pandemic, criminals sent fraudulent emails claiming to offer government support to those impacted by the pandemic and scam text messages requesting payments to book a Covid-19 vaccine.