The impact of COVID-19 lockdown on fraud in the UK.

The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly altered socio-economic activities, human behaviors, and crime patterns. However, less is known about how the pandemic and associated restrictions affected cyber-enabled and traditional fraud. Here, we conducted a retrospective analysis using police-recorded crime dat...

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Publicado en:Humanities & Social Sciences Communications Vol. 11; no. 1; pp. 1 - 12
Autores principales: Chen, Shuai, Ding, Fangyu, Buil-Gil, David, Hao, Mengmeng, Maystadt, Jean-François, Fu, Jingying, Dong, Jiping, Gao, Chundong, Zhuo, Jun, Jiang, Dong
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Springer Nature 12/18/2024
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        atl: The impact of COVID-19 lockdown on fraud in the UK.
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        au:
          Chen, Shuai
          Ding, Fangyu
          Buil-Gil, David
          Hao, Mengmeng
          Maystadt, Jean-François
          Fu, Jingying
          Dong, Jiping
          Gao, Chundong
          Zhuo, Jun
          Jiang, Dong
        affil:
          https://ror.org/034t30j35 Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
          https://ror.org/05qbk4x57 College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
          https://ror.org/027m9bs27 Department of Criminology, School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
          https://ror.org/02495e989 IRES/LIDAM, UCLouvain, Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
          https://ror.org/03q83t159 FNRS - Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique, Brussels, Belgium
          https://ror.org/04f2nsd36 Department of Economics, Lancaster University Management School, Lancaster, UK
          https://ror.org/034t30j35 The Administrative Bureau of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
      su:
        Computer fraud
        Offenses against property
        Criminal methods
        COVID-19 pandemic
        Demographic change
      sug:
        subj:
          Computer fraud
          Offenses against property
          Criminal methods
          COVID-19 pandemic
          Demographic change
      ab: The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly altered socio-economic activities, human behaviors, and crime patterns. However, less is known about how the pandemic and associated restrictions affected cyber-enabled and traditional fraud. Here, we conducted a retrospective analysis using police-recorded crime data in the UK to examine the impact of COVID-19 restrictions and changes in human activity on fraud. Results indicate that following the onset of the lockdown, the number of recorded fraud cases increased by 28.5%, contrasting with traditional property crimes, which dropped by 28.1%. However, the lockdown did not have a significant impact on the long-term trend of fraud. With the lifting of restrictions, fraud gradually regressed to levels approaching those before the pandemic. By inspecting the effects of different government responses and changes in population mobility on various types of fraud, we found that more stringent restrictions were associated with larger increases in most types of cyber-enabled fraud, except for those that rely on offline activities, whereas the impact on traditional fraud was mixed and contingent upon specific opportunity structures. These findings overall align with the assumptions of routine activity theory and provide clear support for its applicability in fraud and cybercrime.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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