Credit, collections & insolvency news
The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) anticipates that fraud and scams will constitute 35% of its banking and loan cases in the 2025/26 financial year, translating to over 37,000 complaints. This marks an increase from the projected 33,000 cases by the end of the current financial year. FOS also expects to handle around 240,000 new complaints…
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Latest research from Cifas has shown that nearly half (48%) of adults believe it is ‘reasonable’ to commit first-party fraud. First-party fraud, when someone knowingly misrepresents their identity or provides false information for financial or material gain, is on the rise. Examples include exaggerating salaries on mortgage applications, ordering goods online and falsely claiming they…
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The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has announced new measures which could see welfare fraudsters, who cheated the taxpayer out of £7 billion last year, banned from driving if they repeatedly fail to reimburse the public and repay their debt. As part of new legislation set to be introduced in Parliament to deliver the biggest…
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Two men from London have been sentenced at Inner London Crown Court after intercepting postal correspondence and using confidential information to steal money from bank accounts. The case was investigated by the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit (DCPCU), a specialist police unit sponsored by the banking industry. The unit acted after the bank alerted…
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Lloyds Bank is warning that rogue retailers are preparing to rip off shoppers in the January sales, offering big online discounts to lure people into purchasing items that are never dispatched. The number of rogue retailers identified by Lloyds in January 2024 was 140% higher than the normal monthly average across the year, indicating that…
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Three men from London have been sentenced at Inner London Crown Court to a combined six years and nine months for using a SIM farm to send out masses of fraudulent texts and calls, conning victims out of an overall sum of £223,183.53. The sentencing follows an investigation and arrest by specialist banking industry sponsored…
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Identity fraud continues to grow and now costs the UK an estimated £1.8 billion each year. It is one of the most common case types filed to the Cifa sNational Fraud Database by its 750-plus industry members – accounting for 64% of all filings in 2023 with more than 237,000 identity fraud cases recorded. Industry…
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Complaints regarding banks’ handling of fraud have reached a record high, with the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) reporting 9,091 cases from July to September, a significant increase from 6,264 in the same period last year. This surge includes 4,956 cases related to authorised push payment (APP) scams, where consumers mistakenly send money to fraudsters. In…
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A report by Global Anti-Scam Alliance’s (GASA) conducted in association with UK’s leading fraud prevention service, Cifas has revealed UK people lost £11.4 billion to scams in the last 12 months, up £4 billion on last year. With Black Friday imminent and expected to trigger a spike in scam attempts this week, GASA and Cifas are…
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Research by the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) reveals that 36% of fraud victims are now hesitant to adopt new money management methods with vulnerable groups are particularly affected. Almost one in five fraud victims said their experience left them feeling anxious or depressed, while half reported a diminished trust in others. A third of victims…
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has started criminal proceedings against four individuals for conspiracy to commit false accounting, with three of them facing further charges for fraud. Terry Dodd, John Riley and Brian Flanagan have been charged with fraudulently abusing their positions as directors of the Dial-A-Cab Credit Union for their own personal gain. …
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Research from fraud prevention service, Cifas, has revealed that nearly two-thirds (63%) of decision makers in large UK businesses are worried that employees will be targeted by fraudsters, with 50% of respondents fearing staff will become an ‘insider threat’. As many businesses prepare to recognise International Fraud Awareness Week (17-23 November), a recent Cifas survey…
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A new study by FICO has underscored the need for banks to strike a better balance between customer satisfaction and fraud mitigation as real-time payments (RTP) surge in popularity. In the survey, one in four (26%) per cent of consumers said that they had reported actual or suspected scam losses to their bank. About three-quarters…
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