DORSET residents and businesses lost over £8million to fraudsters and cybercriminals in the first six months of the year.

That’s the claim being made by information security business Hicomply, who have extracted data from the Office for National Statistics and National Fraud Intelligence Bureau.

They said Dorset has the highest rates of fraud and cybercrime in the country with a rate of seven reports per 1,000 population and a reported £8.1million in losses.

Nationally, UK police forces reported 178,699 incidents of fraud and cybercrime in the first half of 2022 with estimated losses totalling £1.7billion.

Despite the figures, stats from the ONS showed that overall fraud and computer misuse crime figures had fallen between April 2021 and March 2022

Hicomply focused on the fraud and computer misuse crime rate per 1,000 population, the total number of offences in each region, the total number of fraud and computer misuse reports per region, and the total number of cybercrimes per region between January-June 2022.

Marius van Aswegen, Chief Operations Officer at Hicomply, said: “One of the most obvious ways we can stop successful cybercrime attempts is by recognising the signs of an attack. The data shows that hacking is one of the most widespread cybercrimes we face in the UK.

“Phishing, which is a method of tricking the target into revealing sensitive or personal information, is one common method cybercriminals use to maliciously gain access to data. Make sure to learn the signs to look out for so you can identify fake emails and text messages. For organisations, it’s important to invest in regular staff training and awareness.”

Signs a message or email may not be legitimate include:

  • The message comes from an email address or mobile number that doesn’t match that of the real sender; e.g. a Gmail address is used to send you an email about your bank account
  • The message includes spelling or grammatical errors
  • There is an urgent call to action with ‘serious’ consequences if you don’t act immediately
  • You are asked to click on a link that doesn’t match the domain of the real organisation or sender.