Its estimated 40 of all crime in england and wales is fraud. Hello, its the police, open up. Fraud, it is a National Security issue. Its funding other organised crime. | you look back now and you think, how stupid were we . Yeah. But at that moment in time, it was. It was quite terrifying. Every year, fraudsters relieve us of an estimated £5 billion. Last year in kent alone, 12,000 frauds were reported. Panoramas been filming there for almost a year with the kent police fraud squad. The groups that operate tend to be from london. The whole of kent, it is targeted because its a quickjourney for them to come and pick up the cash. Weve also got quite an aged population, again, which is who they look to target, often. So it sort ofjust goes hand in hand with the sort of population type. Police are increasingly worried about something they call courierfraud. It begins with a call from a fraudster pretending to be a Police Officer or bank official, and ends with a Courier Collecting Cash or
it s estimated 40% of all crime in england and wales is fraud. hello, it s the police, open up. fraud, it is a national security issue. - it s funding other organised crime. | you look back now and you think, how stupid were we? yeah. but at that moment in time, it was. ..it was quite terrifying. every year, fraudsters relieve us of an estimated £5 billion. last year in kent alone, 12,000 frauds were reported. panorama s been filming there for almost a year with the kent police fraud squad. the groups that operate tend to be from london. the whole of kent, it is targeted because it s a quickjourney for them to come and pick up the cash. we ve also got quite an aged population, again, which is who they look to target, often. so it sort ofjust goes hand in hand with the sort of population type. police are increasingly worried about something they call courierfraud. it begins with a call from a fraudster pretending to be a police officer or bank official, and ends with a courie
i went to pay the window cleaner and i thought, 0h, some money s gone from my bank. at that point, then the penny dropped. the fraudsters had also withdrawn £4,000 from her bank account after impersonating her on the phone. it completely shook me, and i said to myself, you know, am i all right? am i coping with life all right? last summer, kent police received 140 reports of courierfraud. banks in england and wales lost £120 million last year to fraudsters impersonating police or other officials. they normally target an area and hit it hard and are making lots of calls because there will be a lot of people thatjust realise it s a scam and won t engage. police investigating jean s case are about to make an arrest. they ve identified a suspect whose bank account was used
we ve also got quite an aged population, again, which is who they look to target, often. so it sort of just goes hand in hand with the sort of population type. police are increasingly worried about something they call courier fraud . it begins with a call from a fraudster pretending to be a police officer or bank official, and ends with a courier collecting cash or bank cards from your home. when fraudsters called 90 year old jean, she believed it was her bank. i was in bed and the phone rang, so i scrambled to pick it up. and a voice said to me, have you had your debit card? well, i had had a notice that my debit card was coming to me. i was a bit perturbed so i said, well, no. they said, oh, dear. oh, dear, your card s been cancelled, in that case. you can t use it. by chance, jean was already expecting a new card. the fraudsters told her it had been lost in the post, so they were
at on a wider scale, with a series - of similar offences. geoff and jane didn t lose any money, but the police operation failed. no one s been arrested. fraudsters often operate across county borders, so police forces must work together. panorama has been given access to a joint fraud special operations unit. officers from six forces are taking part. courier fraud is a massive issue, nationally. the team i now represent will look at the organised crime groups solely. criminals who are sophisticated in their methodology. knock at door police.