The unprecedented changes in routine activities brought about by COVID-19 and the associated lockdown measures contributed to a reduction in opportunities for predatory crimes in outdoor physical spaces, while people spent more time connected to the internet, and opportunities for cybercrime and fraud increased. This article applies time-series analysis to historical data on cybercrime and fraud reported to Action Fraud in the United Kingdom to examine whether any potential increases are beyond normal crime variability. Furthermore, the discrepancies between fraud types and individual and organizational victims are also analyzed. The results show that while both total cybercrime and total fraud increased beyond predicted levels, the changes in victimization were not homogeneous across fraud types and victims. The implications of these findings on how changes in routine activities during COVID-19 have influenced cybercrime and fraud opportunities are discussed in relation to policy, practice, and academic debate.

COVID-19 带来的日常活动前所未有的变化以及相关的封锁措施减少了户外物理空间中掠夺性犯罪的机会，同时人们花更多的时间连接到互联网，网络犯罪和欺诈的机会也增加了。本文将时间序列分析应用于向英国 Action Fraud 报告的网络犯罪和欺诈的历史数据，以检查是否有任何潜在的增长超出了正常的犯罪可变性。此外，还分析了欺诈类型与个人和组织受害者之间的差异。结果表明，虽然网络犯罪总数和欺诈总数都超出了预期水平，但不同欺诈类型和受害者的受害变化并不相同。