FOI 281241

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 281241

 

I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 27^th September 2023.  Please find below the response to your request:

 

Request 1

1. How many reports you have received of people having their phone numbers fraudulently spoofed by companies in the past three years?
2. How many reports you have had of people receiving cold calls from spoofed numbers in the past three years?
3. How many of these reports have been investigated?
4. How many have resulted in a conviction?

 

Request 2

1. How many reports you have received of people having their emails fraudulently spoofed by companies in the past three years?
2. How many reports you have had of people receiving email messages with forged sender addresses in the past three years?
3. How many of these reports have been investigated?
4. How many have resulted in a conviction?

 

 

 

Reply

 

There is no specific offence title for “spoofing” so a keyword search for this request has been completed.  Keywords searches are entirely dependent upon the data quality of information entered into the free text field and spelling used and the results cannot be considered exhaustive. The results returned from this search were then manually checked to review the incident summary of each offence and remove those that did not meet the definition of spoofing taken from the action fraud website “works by fraudsters cloning the telephone number of the organisation they want to impersonate and then make it appear on the victim’s caller ID display when they telephone them on a landline.”  The remaining ones have then been determined by the method of spoofing from the incident summary.  Due to the specificity of the search these results cannot be considered conclusive.

 

Please note that Spoofing should be reported through Action Fraud as the majority of fraud offences are now recorded by Action Fraud. Action Fraud is the national centre responsible for receiving, recording and disseminating reports of fraud and you may wish to make enquiries with this organisation regarding your request. The Action Fraud website is: http://www.actionfraud.police.uk

 

 

Request 1

1. How many reports you have received of people having their phone numbers fraudulently spoofed by companies in the past three years?

 

• One
•  

2. How many reports you have had of people receiving cold calls from spoofed numbers in the past three years?

 

• Nil
•  

3. How many of these reports have been investigated?

 

            No information held. NFIB Referral.

 

4. How many have resulted in a conviction?

 

            No information held. Conviction data is held by HM Courts

 

Request 2

1. How many reports you have received of people having their emails fraudulently spoofed by companies in the past three years?

 

            One

 

2. How many reports you have had of people receiving email messages with forged sender addresses in the past three years?

 

            Three

 

3. How many of these reports have been investigated?

 

            All

 

4. How many have resulted in a conviction?

 

No information held. Conviction data is held by HM Courts