FOI 760-25 Catfishing
Request:
Please would you let me know how many victims and perpetrators of ‘catfishing’ your force dealt with between 1 Jan-31 Dec 2020, 1 Jan-31 Dec 2021, 1 Jan-30 June 2022, 1 Jan-30 June 2023 and 1 Jan-30 June 2024?
The definition of catfishing, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is “the process of luring someone into a relationship by means of a fictional online persona”.
You may have counted the data in your figures for victims and perpetrators of fraud.
I would like the figures broken down into:
1. Male and female victims.
2. racial/ethnic groups of victims e.g. white; Indian; Pakistani; Bangladeshi; African; Caribbean or whichever way your service breaks down the racial/ethnic groups.
3. Male and female perpetrators/suspects you arrested and charged.
4. racial/ethnic groups of perpetrators e.g. white; Indian; Pakistani; Bangladeshi; African; Caribbean or whichever way your service breaks down the racial/ethnic groups.
5. Ages of victims – e.g., 11-17; 18-30; 31-40; 41-50; 51-60; 61-70; 70-plus.
6. Ages of perpetrators – e.g., 11-17; 18-30; 31-40; 41-50; 51-60; 61-70; 70-plus.
Response:
Searches were conducted within Northamptonshire Police to locate the information and I can now advise ‘Catfishing’ itself is not an offence, it may be that this has been captured within offences of ‘Romance Fraud’.
It is important to understand the process of how reports of fraud are received and dealt with in Northamptonshire Police.
When a victim of fraud contacts us, if it is not a call for service (i.e. someone needs to attend) then the victim is directed to Action Fraud. If it is a call for service, then an officer will attend, and this will also again be referred to Action Fraud. All frauds are reported to Action Fraud. Another way a victim may report a fraud is direct to Action Fraud via their online reporting service. Action Fraud then triage those reports and based on solvability a percentage are returned to Force for investigation.
Therefore, Action Fraud are best placed to provide comprehensive information on reports of fraud. The figure sent back to Northamptonshire Police for investigation will be considerably lower than the figure that Action Fraud receive.