According to a report conducted by the London Assembly’s police and crime committee, individuals and businesses decided not to inform the police of 85% of swindles to which they fell victim.
It means the official 3.7 million crime figure for England and Wales would have been nearly one-third higher had the unreported cons been included - pushing up the number of annual offences to almost 5 million.
Findings reveal some 70% of frauds are now carried out using the internet. Only 211,344 frauds were recorded by police in 2013-14, with a reported loss of GBP 2.2billion.
Most victims did not report fraud and online crime to the police because of the small amounts of money involved, usually less than GBP 100, they felt ‘embarrassed’ at being tricked by a fraudster or believed the culprit would not be brought to justice.
It found that so-called traditional forms of crime appeared to be being replaced by internet fraud. A survey of 1,004 Londoners found 21% had suffered online fraud, compared with 10%who been a victim of theft or burglary.
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