Covid-19 pandemic by targeting people and businesses in Scotland are among the most common scams recorded in 2020. Scammers adopted unscrupulous new tactics such as telling people they had been in contact with someone with coronavirus and demanding their bank details to pay for a test.
Scams around illegal puppy farms were also reported during the year with an increase in people seeking to buy pets during lockdown, resulting in some heartbreaking cases where puppies purchased online were found to have serious illnesses.
Cold calls and texts purportedly from banks continued to be prevalent in 2020, with the most frequently reported scams claiming there had been a problem with a consumer's account and requesting a transfer of money to a.