Advanced fee fraud is becoming the biggest growing criminal activity in the UK with more than 77% of cases committed by criminals outside the country.

In this scam, people pay a small fee upfront in exchange for being rewarded with a larger amount of money due to them. This could be a tax rebate, lottery prize, or inheritance. Of course, that later sum never comes.

an estimated 409,000 offenses occur each year

A previously unpublished report from police found that an estimated 409,000 such offenses occur each year. According to the UK’s Labour Party, the government is failing to take action by demanding countries tackle the gangs responsible for taking advantage of people in the UK.

Calling the gangs “parasites,” Labour’s Shadow Attorney General Emily Thornberry, said they are “feasting on Britain.”

“Under the Tories, fraud has become the most commonly experienced crime in the UK, with thousands of working people and pensioners being robbed of their hard-earned wages and savings every single day. That has to stop.”