Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
New survey results from Provenir have found that nearly half of all financial services executives are struggling with managing credit risk and detecting and preventing fraud. The survey also discovered that many financial services are revamping their credit risk decisioning and fraud prevention strategies in 2025, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) playing a prominent role. Over…
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An accountant who helped himself to £27,000 from the ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme as part of a bigger Covid loans fraud has been jailed for three years and eight months. Zeeshan Ashraf claimed a total of £268,102.07 and tried to claim £52,732.66 that he was not entitled to from support schemes set up…
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Nearly a fifth (18%) of UK people have lied on their CVs and job applications in order to land a role, or know someone who has, in the last 12 months – research from the fraud prevention service, Cifas, has revealed. Its latest Fraud Behaviours Survey shows falsifying CV qualifications and supplying false information on…
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A new report from BioCatch, has revealed that criminals are targeting young people in the UK with nearly two-thirds (65%) of money mules in the UK being younger than 30. The report follows new research from Cifas which found that more than one-fifth (22%) of adults in the UK thought that money muling was legal. The NCA estimates…
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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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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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A man from South London has been sentenced to five years in prison for impersonating banks and stealing £988,719 from banking customers. The sentencing follows an investigation and arrest by specialist banking industry sponsored police unit, the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit (DCPCU). Between 2021 and 2024, Adam Raja, defrauded banking customers by impersonating…
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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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New research by Chartered Institute of Credit Management (CICM), in a survey of 200 professional Credit Managers, has shown that more than four out of five (81%) say their organisations have experienced fraud this year with two out of five (40%) saying the frequency of attempted frauds has increased. The most common frauds relate to…
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A company director moved £100,000 in fraudulent Covid loans through family bank accounts Muhammadh Chaudhry, who previously went by the name of Masood Jamati, secured a £50,000 Bounce Back Loan for a media business in July 2020. The 41-year-old then fraudulently obtained another £50,000 loan for UK Media Kit Hire Ltd in September 2020, which…
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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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