News & Blog

Fraud Prevention

1st November 2018

Being a victim of fraud is becoming ever more common, if you haven’t experienced fraud directly, you will undoubtedly know someone who has.

With fraudsters coming up with ever more sophisticated scams and methods of getting their web-based hands on our money, should the banks be expected to foot the bill?

With UK banks being encouraged to be more transparent, the way in which they are handling claims from their customers is becoming much clearer. Many customers are being told they are not covered and won’t be getting their money back.

The statistics around fraud cases are staggering.

In the first 6 months of 2018 over £500 million was stolen from customers of UK banks.

Cifas members recorded 84,463 cases of fraud in the first 6 months of 2018. Although this represents a 5% drop when compared with the previous year, identity fraudsters applying for credit cards increased by 12%.

£358 million was lost to unauthorised fraud.

These are cases where the victim is unaware of transactions being made. Victims of unauthorised fraud are usually refunded by their banks.

Authorised fraud victims do not get their money back.

One of the most common forms of Authorised fraud or APP fraud are purchase scams. This is where people are scammed into paying for a product or service that does not exist. These are often ‘too good to be true’ offers, which rush a person into handing over payments for fear of missing out. However not all are so easy to spot. Current legislation means that the individual is liable for payments they authorise themselves, regardless of whether the seller was genuine.

It’s not just the elderly and non-internet savvy that are being targeted.

I’m sure many would say “It’ll never happen to me”. But the reality is everyone is at risk and even the most internet savvy and financially clued up can fall foul of a hidden scam. In the first nine months of 2018, 3,527 under 21’s had experienced identity fraud. An increase of 24% on 2017.

9,636 under 21’s became money mules.

It’s thought that as many as 9,636 young people agreed that criminals could use their bank account to launder cash. An increase of 26% on the previous year. What initially may not seem so unreasonable or serious to a young person, can land them in serious trouble. It’s up to us to educate our children and give them the life skills to be able to spot these scams.

Check out our Top Tips to prevent fraudulent activity and identity theft.
(https://www.dcmcash.com/2018/07/20/top-10-tips-to-prevent-fraudulent-activity-identity-theft/)


Sources:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45634362
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45809718
https://www.cifas.org.uk/newsroom/identity-fraud-falls-first-time-since-2014

Reference – BL042-Oct-18

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