SCOTS have been hit with a huge rise in financial crime and a police chief has admitted that technological advances have made it easier for embezzlers.
Fraudulent crimes, including phishing and credit and debit card fraud, have risen by a nearly a third in a quarter-on-quarter Police Scotland analysis while detection rates have fallen from 41% to 34%.
Police Scotland's Management Information Report shows that there were 1,955 incidents of fraud during the first quarter in 2017/18 but that rose to 2,584 this year.
And East Renfrewshire saw the biggest rise in fraud crimes in mainland Scotland, with the numbers trebling to 18 - while in Inverclyde the numbers more than doubled from 14 to 36.
There were concerns earlier this year that organised criminals posing as bank anti-fraud experts have used elaborate phone scams to con businesses and a pensioner out of more than £7m.
In February, Police Scotland were investigating 19 attacks thought to have been carried out by five UK gangs.
Charities, construction and law firms had reportedly been targeted by vishing - the illegal access of data via voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) - since the summer of last year with one duped out of £2m.
Hamilton Academical are one of the the most high profile known vishing targets after they were defrauded of almost £1m, last October, wiping out its savings.
Assistant Chief Constable Malcolm Graham said: “Advances in technology pose an increased vulnerability when tackling fraud and we have seen an increasing trend in online fraud and crimes involving contactless payments. “With this form of technology, stolen cards can be monetised quickly and easily while online shopping also allows cloned cards and stolen card details to be used fraudulently."
According to the new data, Orkney having had no recorded fraud incidents in the first quarter of the last financial year had four a year later.
In Glasgow crimes of fraud rose by 56% to 495, in Fife there was a 53% increase and in Edinburgh there was a 40.7% rise In East Lothian the number for fraud crimes actually dropped sharply from 37 to 21 and in Highland it dipped from 137 to 81.
Mr Graham said: "We are investing in resources and equipping officers with the necessary skills to tackle this growing area of criminality.
“We are also working ever more closely with our banking colleagues. New work in this area is actively preventing fraud through the Banking Protocol which allows us to protect those who are vulnerable to financial crime.
"Between April and June 2018, £1.05 million was prevented by Bank and Police teams protecting vulnerable, often elderly, account holders.”
Police Scotland's latest figures also show that violent crime has fallen and domestic housebrakings are at their lowest level for five years.
The data comes from the quarter one Management Information Reports whic provide in-depth information about the service and recorded crime across the country, but Police Scotland say they are not "official statistics".
Violent crime is down 2.4 per cent year-on-year with common assaults down by 2.7 per cent and serious assaults down 5.2 per cent.
Mr Graham added: “The reduction in both common and serious assaults is to be welcomed and the success in this area is not only because of police effort and focus.
“We have established a National Violence Prevention Board to better understand violent crime and what we can do to tackle it.
“We recognise it is a complex issue and we engage with partners across health, education, government and the licensed trade on a number of initiatives to address alcohol-related violence.
“It is encouraging that domestic housebreakings, which can cause considerable distress to victims, are at their lowest level for five years.”
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