Over £16 million has been lost to online shopping fraudsters and scams in the three months since the UK started lockdown as people became reliant on buying things via the internet – and criminals have taken advantage.
The figure comes from Action Fraud, the UK's national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime, which has received reports of online shopping fraud totaling £16.6m from thousands of victims since shops were forced to close due to the coronavirus outbreak from 23 March.
Unable to make purchases from retail stores, people are buying from online marketplaces instead – only for the thing they've spent money on to never arrive. Nearly a quarter of the victims were 26 years-old or younger.