Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
A recent Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA) survey, conducted in association with Cifas has found that a substantial 10% of Britons lost money to scams or identity theft in the last 12 months, culminating in financial losses approximated at £7.5 billion. 62% of respondents indicated that they had received scam messages at least once per month,…
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Under 25s are more likely than older age groups to have been targeted by impersonation scams. An impersonation scam is where a criminal contacts you pretending to be a person or organisation you trust. These scams can be very sophisticated and often start with attempts to trick you into disclosing personal and financial information. Criminals…
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A London-based criminal gang has been sentenced over £130,000 scam. The initial investigation and arrest were made by specialist banking industry-sponsored police unit – the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit (DCPCU) The two criminals committed around £130,000 of fraud have been sentenced at Southwark Crown Court to a combined total of 5 years and…
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New research from Canada Life has revealed that one in two (51%) adults have or know someone who has experienced a financial scam attempt in the last 12 months. This equates to approximately 26.8 million UK adults. Of these, 3.6 million went on to personally fall victim to the scam. The average amount lost to…
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More than half of firms in emerging finance sectors do not always check who is running the businesses they take on as new clients, new SmartSearch data has revealed. Almost one-in-three respondents (28%) said they often carry out verification checks, 21 percent of firms only did so sometimes, while nine percent say they rarely identify…
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The Financial Conduction Authority (FCA) is warning consumers to watch out for signs of loan fee fraud as summer spending fuels financial pressure. FCA research shows over half of UK adults (55%) are more worried about their finances this summer than they were last year with a quarter of all consumers surveyed (24%) turning to…
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A group of criminals have been sentenced after they conspired to obtain 42 fraudulent loan applications, leading to a loss of approximately £1 million to a UK bank following an investigation and arrest by a specialist banking industry-sponsored police unit, the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit (DCPCU). Married couple Cebrail and Munube Polat, of…
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Over £55.5 million of fraud was prevented last year thanks to the Banking Protocol rapid scam response scheme, according to the latest figures from UK Finance. The Banking Protocol is a UK-wide scheme developed by UK Finance, National Trading Standards and local police forces. Bank and building society staff are trained to spot the warning…
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Latest figures from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) has shown that fraud has returned to pre-coronavirus pandemic levels (no significant change); this suggests previous increases in fraud may have been specific to the coronavirus pandemic period, rather than a sustained change in trends Despite no significant change in fraud overall, there was…
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Despite increasing fraud volumes, the UK enjoys lower rates of successful fraud attempts as a proportion of overall transactions (0.2%) compared to the rest of the globe (1.3%) thanks to a world-leading fraud prevention market according to the latest online fraud analysis published by LexisNexis Risk Solutions. Almost 9 in 10 (88%) UK financial services…
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Data released by Cifas and UK Finance reveals that in the first six months of 2023 there were 17,286 cases with intelligence indicating money mule activity filed to the Cifas National Fraud Database. Of these, 3,881 involved young people aged 21 and under which now make up one in five (23%) of all cases filed…
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The Security Minister convened a meeting of the Joint Fraud Taskforce to discuss measures to tackle fraud including an online fraud charter. Representatives from across the private sector met at 10 Downing Street to update government on progress made to tackle fraud and protect the public from scams. The Security Minister, Tom Tugendhat, convened a…
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A new study from Juniper Research has forecasted that merchant losses from online payment fraud will exceed $362 billion globally between 2023 to 2028, with losses of $91 billion alone in 2028. A rise in eCommerce transactions in emerging markets is driving this growth. Merchants there are facing new threats, such as increased use of…
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