With the country locked down for the last year, thieves have had to get creative. People spending more time inside their homes and online has led to a windfall for cyber and phone scammers who have conned consumers out of ÂŁ34.5 million since 1 March 2020, according to the Action Fraud Team. In turn, recorded theft fell by 21 per cert in the year to September 2020 compared to 2019, with burglaries down by 20 per cent, according to the ONS.