Melissa has reported her neighbours to the police three times since lockdown began. There are a dozen flats in her block and she lives with her seven-year-old son, who she says has asthma-like symptoms. She is furious about “the inconsiderate, selfish behaviour” of residents using communal hallways yet still not complying with lockdown rules.

“My neighbour never seemed to do any exercise before and now he’s training for the Olympics, out two or three times a day.”

Melissa suspects another neighbour has had “different lovers round” in the evening and has been venting to her friends on their CoronaHell WhatsApp group. She says she is proud to be following the rules and feels it’s right to shame those who don’t. “We all have to protect one another,” she says. “We can only stay safe together if we do the right thing individually.” She does not want to give her full name.

Police have been inundated with thousands of daily reports of people allegedly breaching coronavirus rules, prompting the police’s professional standards body to ask the public to curb “deliberate false reporting” and the spread of “misinformation” to target nuisance neighbours or to settle long-running feuds. To date, 3,203 fixed penalty notices have been issued by police, ranging from 380 in Lancashire down to five in Warwickshire.

As Britain enters week five of lockdown, “corona-shaming” has divided debate: what compels a person to publicly corona-shame their neighbour? A moral public duty or an opportunity to vent the mounting frustrations of cabin fever?

For Paul Goodman, who set up the Facebook group Covidiots UK two weeks ago, the answer is obvious: “We have to support the NHS. That’s the reason. The quicker we bring this in line and do what we’re supposed to do, the quicker we return to normalcy.”

According to Google Trends, the term Covidiots – defined by Urban Dictionary as “someone who ignores the warnings regarding public health or safety” – first appeared online on 15 March.

Goodman lives in a village in Warwickshire with his wife, who used to be a paramedic. He set up the group for “a couple of dozen friends”, many of them who work in healthcare, “to highlight some of the unbelievable behaviour of people”. There are now almost 200 members. “We had seen so many people here who feel the rules don’t apply to them. They were blatantly setting up barbecues in local parks, having house parties, sunbathing and so on a few weeks ago. More people seem to be complying now.”

On Twitter, a photo of a sign pasted on a window by a neighbour to shame “Ann” who “keeps on having a friend round” sparked a row over snitching and sanctimony. Later in the week, a videoclip of crowds on Westminster Bridge breaking social distancing guidelines – ironically, while clapping for the NHS – horrified social media users and went viral.

In Norfolk, an NHS nurse went on Facebook to post a photo of a note left on her car. In a spectacular misfire, the note from a neighbour read: “I have been watching you travel everyday … this is clearly unessential travel! You are part of the problem! … You have been reported!”

Over Easter weekend, author and Times columnist Caitlin Moran was publicly shamed and branded a hypocrite on Twitter for allegedly spending Friday afternoon in a friend’s garden while writing a piece for the Saturday paper headlined “Lockdown is easy!”. Neither the Times nor Moran commented on the matter. The incident was preceded by cabinet minister Robert Jenrick, who made media appearances urging the public to stay home, while flouting rules to visit his own parents.

Jon Ronson, author and consultant on an upcoming HBO documentary about shame, with Monica Lewinsky, said he was unsurprised about how quickly “a Stasi-like” narrative had emerged.

“I can maybe, maybe understand the impulse to shop your neighbour – I’ve been quarantining for weeks longer than most and can get annoyed at people flouting the rules when I’m working so hard to stick to them. But it’s difficult, because you will always find transgressions slap bang in the middle of a grey area,” he said. “So what are the rules? I quite like the approach of shaming the behaviour, not the individual.”

Ronson’s 2015 book, So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed, explored the twisted downsides to lecture, cancel, and bully people online. “We’ve seen time and time again when shaming becomes too rampant, terrible things happen. Not least to huge amounts of innocent people.”

Over on the website Mumsnet, one user was considering vilifying her husband in the village Facebook group for “going out at least once a day in his twatty sportscar” while another thread on the internet forum was dedicated to analysing “why people are covidiots”.

Frustration is evidently running high. “The entitled think they are somehow special and justify their actions to themselves,” wrote lubeybooby. Another poster, Oldhaggard, blamed “good ol’ fashioned selfishness … We’re used to our wants being addressed as needs most of the time, and I think people are struggling to see a difference between them.”

However, Stephen Reicher, a professor of psychology at St Andrews and leading expert on crowd psychology, was encouraged by the public response overall. “Levels of compliance are remarkably high. Most people phoning [the police] think they are doing a moral duty. They’re not necessarily evil snitches, they think they’re doing a public good.

“We should set positive norms about behaviour. Rather than starting from a presumption of an ill-will, one should start from the presumption that people are good: trust your neighbour and ask how you can help them.”