Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
New UK Finance data has indicated that there were 45,367 cases of impersonation scams last year, costing £177.6 million.
The research also found that only 51 per cent of people always check if a request for money or personal information is legitimate before responding.
Impersonation scams take place when a criminal contacts you pretending to be a trusted organisation such as a bank, the police, a delivery or utility company, or even a friend or family member. The scams can be very sophisticated and often start with a call, text, email or direct message with an urgent request for money or personal and financial information.
The survey also found that of those that had been approached, an alarming one in five (21 per cent) of people who had responded to communications from a range of organisations (including delivery companies, banks, online retailers, energy companies and the police) said that they later believed to be fraudulent.
The research found that younger adults are particularly at risk. Just 38 per cent of 18-34 year olds always check a request for their money or information is genuine – the lowest of any age group. This age group was also the most likely (39 per cent) to believe that they had been contacted by a criminal after they had responded to an initial request for information from what they thought was a trusted organisation.
Katy Worobec, Managing Director of Economic Crime at UK Finance said “We receive genuine communication from trusted organisations on a daily basis, meaning it’s not always easy for us to spot when an approach for information is in fact from a criminal.”
“Anyone can be caught out by a scam in the heat of the moment and criminals are constantly adapting their tactics to appear legitimate. It has never been more important to take steps to check for genuine communication and follow the advice of the Take Five to Stop Fraud campaign and to stop, challenge and protect.”