FOI 391365
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 391365
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 25th February 2025. Please find below the response to your request:
I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 regarding crimes reported to your officers where the platform OnlyFans was mentioned and or recorded in the reporting of the crime.
I would be grateful if you could provide the following information for the period 1st January 2020 to 31 December 2024.
- Fraud/Financial Crimes:
The number of reported crimes involving fraud, blackmail, or financial scams/crimes where OnlyFans was mentioned.
The number of reports specifically involving:
* Subscription fraud.
* Identity theft.
* Chargeback fraud.
Please provide any information held by your officers on:
* The total financial losses reported in fraud cases involving OnlyFans.
* The average financial loss per case.
* The number of cases resulting in arrests or prosecutions.
- Coercion & Exploitation
* The number of reports mentioning controlling or coercive behaviour (as defined under Section 76 of the Serious Crime Act 2015) involving OnlyFans.
* The number of Modern Slavery Act offences recorded where victims were forced to create content on OnlyFans.
* The number of reports involving:
o Revenge porn.
o Stalking.
o Harassment.
o Threats against OnlyFans creators.
Please break down data (where available) into the following criteria:
* The demographics of victims (e.g., age, gender) where available.
* The number of cases involving organized crime groups.
* The number of cases resulting in safeguarding interventions.
- Underage Content & Exploitation
* The number of child exploitation or grooming-related crimes recorded where OnlyFans was mentioned.
* The number of reports where minors were found to be using or appearing on OnlyFans.
* The age range of minors involved.
* The number of cases involving parental or guardian coercion.
* The number of cases involving 3rd part coercion (other than a parent).
* The number of cases resulting in prosecutions under the Protection of Children Act 1978.
If possible, I would be grateful if you could also provide anonymised summaries of notable cases involving OnlyFans. I would also welcome any contextual information or trends (e.g., whether cases are increasing or decreasing over time) that could be shared from your records.
Reply
West Mercia Police holds some of the information requested
Q1
|
Number of Blackmail offences where the incident summary includes "Only Fans" |
Calender Years |
Grand Total |
||||
|
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
||
|
OTHER THEFT |
1 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
||
|
Blackmail |
1 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
||
|
Grand Total |
1 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
||
Caveat: Fraud offences are managed by the national Action Fraud Agency who give intelligence to local police forces either due to an offence occurring within their area or due to a victim living in their area requiring support.
These matters are not recorded as crimes on our systems. A search was carried out specifically looking for non crime investigations which have the action fraud offence title and Only Fans in the incident summary, this has returned as 0.
On searching records on theft and have returned 3 which relate to blackmail which could fall within “financial crime”. There are no markers to denote if subscription fraud, identity theft or chargeback fraud was involved.
There is no separate field for the amount of money taken to be listed, it can be included within the incident summary but is not mandatory. From reading the incident summaries it does not appear that any victims have suffered financial loss.
Q2
|
Number of Modern Slavery investigation where the incident summary includes "Only Fans" |
Calender Years |
Grand Total |
||||
|
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
||
|
Modern Slavery - National Referral Mechanism - referral pending, reasonable grounds decision |
1 |
1 |
||||
|
Grand Total |
1 |
1 |
||||
Q2 & 3
|
Number of offences where the incident summary includes "Only Fans" shown by primary full offence title |
Calender Years |
Grand Total |
||||
|
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
||
|
Administering a substance with intent |
1 |
1 |
||||
|
Assault with Injury - Assault occasioning actual bodily harm |
2 |
2 |
||||
|
Assault with Injury - Malicious wounding: wounding or inflicting grievous bodily harm (Serious wound or equivalent) |
1 |
1 |
||||
|
Assault without Injury - Common assault and battery |
1 |
1 |
2 |
|||
|
Attempted - Causing a child under 16 to watch a sexual act - Offender aged 18 or over |
1 |
1 |
||||
|
Attempted - Engage in sexual communication with a child |
1 |
1 |
||||
|
Causing a child under 16 to watch a sexual act - Offender aged 18 or over |
1 |
1 |
||||
|
Causing intentional harassment, alarm or distress |
1 |
1 |
||||
|
Causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity: Male child no penetration |
1 |
1 |
||||
|
Causing or inciting a female child under 16 to engage in sexual activity No Penetration - Offender 18 or over |
1 |
1 |
||||
|
Engage in controlling/coercive behaviour in an intimate / family relationship. |
1 |
1 |
||||
|
Engage in sexual communication with a child |
1 |
1 |
||||
|
EXPIRED – NOT FOR USE AFTER 30/01/24 - Disclose or threats to disclose private sexual photographs/film with intent to cause distress. |
2 |
5 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
14 |
|
Fear or provocation of violence |
1 |
1 |
||||
|
Harassment |
2 |
1 |
3 |
4 |
10 |
|
|
Harassment - Stalking involving fear of violence |
1 |
1 |
||||
|
Harassment - Stalking involving serious alarm/distress |
1 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
||
|
Intimidating a juror or witness or person assisting in investigation of offence |
1 |
1 |
||||
|
Multiple Undefined Offenders Rape of a female aged 16 or over. |
1 |
1 |
||||
|
Possession of an indecent or pseudo indecent photo of a child |
1 |
1 |
||||
|
Racially or religiously aggravated Harassment or stalking without violence |
1 |
1 |
||||
|
Rape of a female aged 16 or over |
1 |
1 |
||||
|
Rape of a male aged 16 or over |
1 |
1 |
||||
|
Send false communication with intent to cause harm |
1 |
1 |
||||
|
Send indecent or grossly offensive communication to cause distress or anxiety Sec 1A Malicious Communications Act 1988 |
3 |
5 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
12 |
|
Sexual activity with a male child under 16 by Penetration - Offender 18 or over |
1 |
1 |
||||
|
Sexual assault on a female |
1 |
1 |
||||
|
Stalking - Pursue course of conduct in breach of Sec 1 (1) which amounts to stalking |
1 |
2 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
11 |
|
Take or to make or to distribute indecent photographs or pseudo- photographs, of children |
3 |
3 |
||||
|
Voyeurism |
1 |
1 |
||||
|
Grand Total |
9 |
22 |
14 |
17 |
17 |
79 |
Caveat: Question 2 –Requests for information about coercive and controlling offences, asking them to be split into modern slavery, stalking, harassment etc. Modern slavery investigations are not recorded as crimes and coercive & controlling behaviour is a sub sub group within the sub group of Stalking & Harassment.
Question 3 –Requests details regarding underage content & exploitation. Whilst there are some specific offences regarding offences against children for example grooming, there are other offences which are not age specific which would then have a markers such as child sexual exploitation or child sexual abuse markers linked to them.
Due to the conflicting nature of the questions 2 & 3 a search for all crimes and relevant non crimes which include the word “only fans” within the incident summary has been carried out. Where the matter is recorded as a crime and should have a linked a victim and outcome further tables showing the victim demographics and the outcomes are below. The bottom table shows the number of these crimes which also have a child at risk marker linked, none had a child sexual exploitation or child sexual abuse marker linked.
|
Gender and age of victims linked to offences where the incident summary includes "Only Fans" shown by primary full offence title |
Calender Years |
Grand Total |
||||
|
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
||
|
Female |
5 |
18 |
10 |
12 |
12 |
57 |
|
Under 13 |
1 |
1 |
||||
|
13 to 15 |
1 |
3 |
4 |
|||
|
17 or 18 |
3 |
3 |
||||
|
20 to 24 |
2 |
7 |
3 |
1 |
2 |
15 |
|
25 to 29 |
4 |
3 |
4 |
2 |
13 |
|
|
30 to 39 |
5 |
3 |
2 |
4 |
14 |
|
|
40 and above |
1 |
2 |
1 |
4 |
||
|
Age not recorded |
2 |
1 |
3 |
|||
|
Male |
4 |
1 |
4 |
3 |
4 |
16 |
|
Under 13 |
1 |
1 |
||||
|
13 to 15 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
4 |
||
|
17 or 18 |
1 |
1 |
||||
|
20 to 24 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
|||
|
25 to 29 |
2 |
2 |
||||
|
30 to 39 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
4 |
||
|
40 and above |
1 |
1 |
||||
|
Gender not recorded |
3 |
2 |
1 |
6 |
||
|
Age not recorded |
3 |
2 |
1 |
6 |
||
|
Grand Total |
9 |
22 |
14 |
17 |
17 |
79 |
|
Outcome of offences where the incident summary includes "Only Fans" shown by primary full offence title |
Calender Years |
Grand Total |
||||
|
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
||
|
Type 1 - Charged/Summonsed/Postal Requisition |
1 |
1 |
2 |
4 |
||
|
Type 3 - Caution Adult |
1 |
1 |
||||
|
Type 14 - Evidential Difficulties Victim Based- Suspect Not Identified: Crime Confirmed But The Victim Either Declines Or Unable To Support Further Police Investigation To Identify The Offender |
3 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
8 |
|
|
Type 15 - Named Suspect Identified: Victim Supports Police Action But Evidential Difficulties Prevent Further Action |
1 |
10 |
7 |
2 |
20 |
|
|
Type 16 - Named Suspect Identified: Evidential Difficulties Prevent Further Action: Victim Does Not Support (Or Has Withdrawn Support From) Police Action |
5 |
8 |
11 |
7 |
3 |
34 |
|
Type 17 - Prosecution Time Limit Expired: Suspect Identified But Prosecution Time Limit Has Expired |
1 |
1 |
||||
|
Type 18 - Investigation Complete; No Suspect Identified. Crime Investigated As Far As Reasonably Possible-Case Closed Pending Further Investigative Opportunities Becoming Available |
1 |
2 |
3 |
6 |
||
|
Type 20 - Further action resulting from the crime report will be undertaken by another body or agency subject to the victim (or person acting on their behalf) being made aware of the act to be taken |
1 |
1 |
||||
|
Type 21 - Further investigation resulting from crime report which could provide evidence sufficient to support formal action against the suspect is not in the public interest - police decision. |
1 |
1 |
||||
|
Ongoing investigation |
3 |
3 |
||||
|
Grand Total |
9 |
22 |
14 |
17 |
17 |
79 |
|
Number of offences where the incident summary includes "Only Fans" shown by primary full offence title and which have a "Child at risk" marker linked to them |
Calender Years |
Grand Total |
||||
|
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
||
|
Harassment |
1 |
1 |
2 |
|||
|
Harassment - Stalking involving serious alarm/distress |
1 |
1 |
||||
|
Stalking - Pursue course of conduct in breach of Sec 1 (1) which amounts to stalking |
1 |
1 |
2 |
4 |
||
|
Grand Total |
1 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
7 |
|
We are unable to report on how many cases resulted in safeguarding referrals were completed as this is not recorded in a retrievable format on our crime management system.
In regards to the remaining unanswered questions such as “threats against only fan creators”, “ the number of cases involving parental coercion”, “the number of cases involving 3rd party coercion”. There are no specific markers for these themes/elements. West Mercia Police are therefore unable to provide data on this.