Fraudsters prey on low income families

2nd May 2017 Consumer Collections |

Families in Britain who are struggling financially are increasingly becoming prime targets of financial fraud, according to new research from Experian. This group, made up of more than 4 million people in the UK, have experienced the highest growth rate in fraud between 2014 and 2016. Of all the fraudulent credit applications made using an…

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Brits underestimate true cost of fraud

26th April 2017 Consumer Collections |

Online research from Equifax reveals that 61% of Brits underestimate the financial cost of fraud, valuing the impact at less than £1 billion. Over half (54%) estimate the cost to be £500m or below, well below the £1.1 billion level published in the latest KPMG Fraud Barometer. The survey, conducted by YouGov, found 60% of…

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Central Bank of Ireland fine AIB over AML failures

26th April 2017 Consumer Collections |

The Central Bank of Ireland has fined Allied Irish Banks,(‘AIB’) €2,275,000 and reprimanded it for six breaches of the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering & Terrorist Financing) Act, 2010. All six breaches have been admitted by AIB. The Central Bank identified six breaches of the CJA 2010 as a result of significant failures in AIB’s anti‐money…

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FEATURE: Cyber Crime – Fight back against crime and fraud with digital forensics

19th April 2017 Consumer Collections |

According to the National Crime Agency’s Strategic Cyber Industry Group, in its Cyber Crime Assessment report 2016, there is “A need for a stronger law enforcement and business partnership to fight cyber crime” In this article, Andrew Sheldon MSc, one of the UK’s leading experts in the field of digital forensics technology and application, explains how the…

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One-third risk Identity theft by sharing information online

11th April 2017 Consumer Collections |

Online research from Equifax has revealed that a significant portion of social media users risk identity theft by giving fraudsters easy access to personal information. The online survey conducted by YouGov found that almost one-third (30%) of British adults with a social media account include their full name and date of birth on their profile…

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Financial fraud amounts to loss of £768.8 million

30th March 2017 Consumer Collections |

Financial fraud losses across payment cards, remote banking and cheques totalled £768.8 million in 2016, an increase of 2 per cent on the previous year, figures from Financial Fraud Action UK show. The new data shows banks and card companies prevented £1.38 billion of fraud last year, equivalent to £6.40 in every £10 of attempted…

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Equifax launches facial recognition to help security of financial applications

28th March 2017 Consumer Collections |

Equifax, has launched a bespoke Document Verifier solution to provide faster identity authentication for financial product applications using facial recognition. The solution can verify whether an applicant is genuine in a matter of seconds by comparing a live image of the applicant with a photograph of their passport or driving licence, both taken on a…

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56% of Brits would prefer biometric banking

27th March 2017 Consumer Collections |

New research from Equifax, shows that 56% of people online would prefer to use a biometric security method over traditional options like passwords to log into their financial accounts online. The online survey, conducted by YouGov, found that a third (33%) of people would prefer to use fingerprint recognition as a security method to access their…

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Millions of customers frozen out of credit

20th March 2017 Consumer Collections |

More than three million people have been frozen out of credit in the past 12 months, despite mainstream lenders promising to increase access, according to new research.  Almost one in five people who applied for credit in the last 12 months – either a credit card, personal loan or mortgage – had their applications refused,…

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Government to launch new anti money laundering watchdog

17th March 2017 Consumer Collections |

The UK government is setting up a new body that will tackle money laundering and criminal financing. The Office for Professional Body Anti Money Laundering Supervision (OPBAS) will deal with potential weaknesses in the supervisory system and aim to improve its standards. It will also ensure supervisors and law enforcement work together more effectively, the…

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Financial fraud costing £2 million a day

17th March 2017 Consumer Collections |

In 2016, the UK lost £2 million each day as a result of financial fraud, according to official figures released by Financial Fraud Action UK (FFA UK). The figures show the overall scale of financial fraud was £768.8 million, an increase on the £755 million lost in 2015. The figures are published as all major…

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Identity fraud reaches record levels

15th March 2017 Consumer Collections |

Cifas has released new figures showing that identity fraud has hit the highest levels ever recorded.  A record 172,919 identity frauds were recorded in 2016 more than in any other previous year. Identity fraud now represents over half of all fraud recorded by the UK’s not-for-profit fraud data sharing organisation (53.3% of all frauds recorded…

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Deutsche Bank fined £163 million by FCA for AML controls failings

31st January 2017 Consumer Collections |

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has today fined Deutsche Bank AG  £163,076,224 for failing to maintain an adequate anti-money laundering (AML) control framework during the period between 1 January 2012 and 31 December 2015.  This is the largest financial penalty for AML controls failings ever imposed by the FCA, or its predecessor the Financial Services…

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