West Midlands Police see 2,414 reports of Cyber Crime in the past 12 months

As the U.K. prepared to spend billions of pounds online over the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend, new research has revealed the scale of losses incurred from cybercrime in the past 12 months.

Storage Vault analysed data from the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau to find out which areas in the U.K. had been hit hardest by cybercrime. Police forces throughout the U.K. dealt with 54,574 incidents of cybercrime between October 2023 and November 2024, with associated losses of £6 million.

England saw the lion’s share of reports, with English forces dealing with 50,004 of the total incidents, accounting for £5.2 million of the overall losses. Wales came second nationally with 1,765 reports and losses of £14.2k in total.

In the West Midlands, West Midlands Police received the most reports overall with 2,414 cases and reported losses of £105.5k.

Regionally, Yorkshire and the Humber had the highest total losses with £1.9 million reported taken through cybercrime. This was followed by London with £856.1k and the South East with £806.2k.

Despite having the highest total as a region, one force accounted for the majority of the losses in the Yorkshire and Humber area. 

Humberside Police received just 580 reports throughout the 12-month period analysed, but accounted for £1.8 million of the losses nationally. For comparison, North Yorkshire Police received 500 reports, but losses of just £6.2k in total.

Anthony McAteer of Storage Vault gave his thoughts on the analysis: “There are a lot of reasons that contribute to us increasingly living our lives online, both privately and while at work, but just because we’re operating in a digital space, it doesn’t mean there aren’t threats we need to be aware of.

“We see customers who prefer to store paper records of their information securely, for the simple reason that it can be a simpler option than securing it against digital attacks. We’re approaching the part of the year where we spend the most collectively, and while it’s easy to be distracted by the festive season, people need to make sure they’re remaining aware of the risks when they’re searching for gifts for their friends and family.”