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FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: FOI-170-2024
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 8th February 2024 as follows:
The number of people who have reported being a victim of phishing scams for the years 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023.
How many of these reports how many are related to phishing scam links pretending to be “Royal Mail”? Of these cases can I have a breakdown of the outcome and/or current stage of investigation?
Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay in providing the response to your request and for any inconvenience that this may have caused you. Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
Response: Please be advised that the requested information is not held in a readily retrievable format as fraud crimes are not sub-classified into categories which would enable extraction of the requested information. In order to determine whether any reference is made to a crime being in relation to a ‘phishing scam’ it would be necessary to review each and every fraud record on an individual basis. Searches were conducted for all offences, recorded during the period 1st January 2019 to 31st December 2023, that have a primary or included classification relating to Fraud, ‘Action Fraud - Call for Service’ or ‘Action Fraud NFIB Referral’. This returned 2880 records and, at 2 to 3 minutes per record (minimum), this would equate to in excess of 96 hours of work. This is therefore above the amount of work to which we are legally required to undertake i.e. the cost of locating and retrieving the information exceeds the ‘appropriate level’ (£450) as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.
In accordance s12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a Refusal Notice for this request.
In accordance with Section 16 of the Act I have a duty to provide advice and assistance in relation to your request; however due to the amount of records involved, I am unable to suggest a way to revise your request into one which could be answered within the fees limit.
However, I can advise that fraud offences are now recorded by Action Fraud who do further classify fraud crimes into specific categories. You may wish to approach Action Fraud, as the national fraud reporting centre, in relation to the information requested.
https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/
Every effort has been made to ensure that the information provided is as accurate as possible.
Your attention is drawn to the below which details your right of complaint.
Should you have any further enquiries concerning this matter, please write or email the Freedom of Information Unit quoting the reference number above.
Yours sincerely
Freedom of Information Officer
Freedom of Information Unit
Warwickshire Police
PO Box 4
Leek Wootton
Warwickshire
CV35 7QB