LL THIS WEEK
Frightening fraudsters A vulnerable student was caught up in a high-stakes scam, as JORGE CAPERA reports
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Photo © Guilherme Osinski, on a happier occasion before the scam
Photo © Jefferson Santos, Unsplash
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She said I couldn’t hang up because I would be arrested
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uilherme Osinski panicked when the caller at the other end of the line told him that they were going to prosecute him for five criminal offences related to tax evasion. The 26-year-old student, from Brazil, did not know that he was about to become a victim of fraud, a type of offence that has been rising in Merseyside, according to new figures published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Guilherme was in his flat in the Baltic Triangle when he received a phone call from an unknown number last Wednesday. He picked it up only to discover a voice at the other end of the line accusing him of having committed five criminal offences. Guilherme said: “She didn’t even give me time to say ‘Hello, who’s speaking’. She already was saying something about an arrest warrant against me because supposedly I hadn’t paid any taxes after arriving in the UK.” The caller told him that he would be swiftly arrested if he looked for help and promised him that all prosecution against him would be halted once he had paid his taxes. He gave into pressure after she sent him a supposedly official document from HM Revenue and Customs service on WhatsApp. Once Guilherme had sent over a considerable amount of money, she asked for a further £1,800, but he was not able to pay that. He said: “As soon as I hung up the phone call, I went downstairs to talk to somebody in reception. I showed one of the receptionists some screen shots of our conversation on WhatsApp and the document she had sent me. He told me that he could tell it was all fake. Then, I began to freak out.” Guilherme’s case is part of a growing number of fraud and computer misuse offences in Merseyside. According to figures published last week by the ONS, this type of offence has increased by 11% in the region. The latest crime figures for England and Wales showed that, in Merseyside, there were 565 more cases of fraud and computer misuse by the end of June 2020 than the previous year, taking the total number of registered offences in 2020 to 5,886. The figures also showed that fraud and computer misuse has increased in England and Wales, despite a reduction in the total number of recorded
crimes. Whereas total recorded crime in England and Wales fell by 5%, fraud and computer misuse rose by 4%. According to the ONS, this reduction in crime was mainly driven by substantial falls in crime during the April to June period, when the country was under strict lockdown. But, it also says that the pandemic is likely to have had a detrimental effect on the number of fraud and computer misuse offences reported as people were making more transactions online. This is supported by a statistical bulletin on recorded cybercrime and fraud trends in the UK during Covid-19 published in August by the University of Leeds. The research says that the proportion of fraud enabled by computers and other digital means increased slightly after lockdown, just like fraud related to online shopping.
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n Merseyside, total recorded crime did not fall but stayed stable. Moreover, fraud and computer misuse grew by 11% during June 2019 to June 2020. These type offences were among the few that increased in the region, along with drug offences and possession of weapons. However, it is still very hard to determine the role of lockdown in the increase of fraud and computer misuse offences in the region as there is no specific regional data for these offences during the lockdown period in the figures published by the ONS. Even though the ONS says that it is still too early to assess the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in the longterm trends of this type of offences, it seems like everyone is becoming more at risk of being a victim of fraud and computer misuse as digital means of communication gain a greater role in our lives. In the meantime, Guilherme says he has found in his family and friends the drive to overcome the psychological impact and embarrassment resulting from his situation and looks at the future with hope. He has filed a report with the police, but he is still waiting for the money to be recovered. He said: “If something like this happens to you, if you are a victim like I was, just try to hold on and get close to your family and to your friends. As soon as you can, just try to get out from you flat or from your house and... see the sunset. It’s going to make you to feel better, I’m pretty sure.”
