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
he s told her she s investing her money in diamonds. again, her bank statements show the extent of the fraud. this is one file we ve found, which mum s been making monthly transfers to. 240, the 12th april. the 20th april, 290. another one in may, 480. it s every.every page that you look at is more payments. they amount to between 1,500 and 2,000 a month. and this has been going on for about nine years. all bank transfers. so about 25,000 a year. and she s still received nothing. carol s still receiving calls from the fraudster, who calls himself david. she s already paid him at least £200,000. but he wants more. message tone beeps
0k, thank you. 0k, david, thank you. thanks for that. bye bye. ok, bye bye. it s notjust a one off they ve been preying on herfor nine years now. and that s what. that s what makes it, you know, they ve befriended her and built up some sort of relationship with mum. and she actually believes what they re saying. you know? she does. that s the sad part. police discover that david s been calling from india. that meansjo and corinne have almost no chance of recovering their mum s money. even when there is an investigation, it s quite common for that investigation to reach an end of life cycle, where money has left the uk, it s gone to a foreign jurisdiction that we cannot access and unfortunately we cannot progress that case.
message tone beeps david, that s all we know him as. he s the one who phones mum and asks her to pay by credit. phone keypad beeps jo and corinne have already reported david to the police, but they re keeping in touch with him, hoping he ll give them a clue that could help find him and their mum s stolen money. hello, david. it s carol s daughter again. oh, hello, there. how are you doing, are you ok? yes. i was listening to your message on the answer machine. i m just a bit worried you re not going to cancel mum s account, are you?