THE amount of reports of fraudsters calling from Bolton numbers has nearly doubled over the course of two years.

From June 2019 to May this year there were 343 suspect calls from an 01204 number reported to Action Fraud compared with 176 in the same period two years before.

A Freedom of Information request also found that the number of reports of calls from Bolton numbers thought to have been scams went up from eight in April to 62 in May.

Meanwhile, the amount of fraud victims who gave a Bolton postcode fell from 1,955 between June 2017 to May 2018 to 1,800 from June 2019 to May this year.

The figures also found that there were some staggering single loss reports from Bolton residents. The highest report in the last three years was made from June 2018 to May 2019, which was £1.9m.

There have also been reported single losses of £600,000 and £400,000.

Action Fraud says it has not seen a rise in scams during the lockdown but a number of COVID-19 related frauds have emerged.

A spokesman said: “Fraud and cyber-crime has increased nationally, with its anonymous and global nature making it all the more appealing for criminals.

"Additionally, the complexity and change in technology, the sophistication of tactics used by offenders and the increase in awareness of fraud have all led to an increase in reports to Action Fraud.

While we haven’t seen a rise in fraud during lockdown, we have seen a number of different scams circulating, relating to COVID-19.

"The majority of reports are related to online shopping scams where people have ordered protective face masks, hand sanitiser, COVID-19 testing kits, and other products, which never arrive.

"We have also seen the number of phishing attempts relating to coronavirus increase, which is usually an email that contains a call to action, encouraging the recipient to visit a website that criminals use for stealing valuable data such as usernames and passwords, financial details, and other personal information."

Reports to Action Fraud are triaged before being sent to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB), run by the City of London Police as the national lead force for fraud.

The NFIB gathers and analyses intelligence on the reports, identifies all viable lines of enquiry and develops packages for other law enforcement agencies for investigation.

It also executes a range of disruption and crime prevention techniques to protect victims, target criminality and engineer out the threat from fraud and cyber-crime.

To report an incident of fraud contact Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or visit its website.

Suspicious emails can be reported to report@phishing.gov.uk.

For up-to-date information on COVID-19 fraud you can follow Action Fraud on Twitter.