THE boss of country’s first multi-agency group to tackle scams against vulnerable people has outlined the “massive challenge” facing a county with a large and rapidly rising number of elderly residents.

The North Yorkshire County Council team behind tackling all forms of fraud, including scam mail, phone frauds, doorstep crime and distraction burglaries, said such was the prevalence of scams that it had made it difficult to even estimate the scale of fraud against certain sections of society.

Recent figures from the County Councils Network show between 2013 and 2016 North Yorkshire saw the number of over 65s grow by 11.7 per cent against a total population increase of -0.11 per cent.

The 65 and over population in North Yorkshire will rise to more than 169,000 (27.6 per cent of its total population) by 2025.

This is predicted to be driven by growing numbers of people aged over 70, with the largest increase expected in the 75 to 79 age group, which will rise by 44 per cent from 26,360 in 2015 to 37,800 in 2025.

Ruth Andrews, head of investigations and safeguarding for the council’s Operation Gauntlet initiative, said while her team’s work since it was set up in 2015 had seen £200,000 returned to victims, what had been uncovered was “only the tip of the iceberg”.

She said it had been estimated that only five to ten per cent of doorstep scam victims reported the crimes, and that 40 per cent of fraud victims did not report crimes in fear of “looking stupid”.

Ms Andrews said numerous targets did not report crimes because they had dementia and did not realise they had become victims.

She said: “One of the important factors is about the amount of the loss.We might have a doorstep crime victim who has only lost £100, but the impact on them might be more severe than for someone who has lost tens of thousands on an investment fraud, but who has a lot of money left.

“In reality, we are never going to be able to deal with every case, there is too much happening, so it is a case of prioritising.”

She said ongoing preventative work included advising residents who had been identified on organised crime gangs’ “suckers lists” and a scheme to increase the social lives of vulnerable people as many victims are lonely.

Ms Andrews said: “We know that one of the key vulnerabilities around this sort of crime is loneliness. People answer the door or pick up the phone because they don’t have any social interaction. We’ve even has victims who have written back to scam mailers because they are so desperate for attention. So tackling the loneliness might actually prevent these people from becoming victims.”