Counter-fraud

It has been reported that anti-fraud organisations and white-collar crime experts have raised significant concerns about potential for loss to the public purse as a result of fraudulent claims for Coronavirus bounce back loans.

Police and bank branch staff in North Wales have prevented £111,756 of fraud in the first half of 2020 through the Banking Protocol, new figures have revealed.

Around £254,532 of fraud in Gwent was prevented by police and bank branch staff between January – June this year as a result of the ‘Banking Protocol’.

Figures released today by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) reveal 107,000 fraudulent insurance claims worth £1.2 billion were uncovered by insurers in 2019 – a 5% increase from 2018.

Sussex Police and bank staff prevented fraudsters from withdrawing more than £800,000 from other people’s accounts in the first half of this year, the force said today (Thursday 10 September).

HMRC's top civil servant, Jim Harra, said his staff believe between 5% and 10% of furlough cash could have been handed out wrongly - either through deliberate fraud or error.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/news/%C2%A335bn-in-furlough-cash-wrongly-paid-out-through-fraud-or-by-mistake/ar-BB18NMKG?ocid=st

A two-year collaboration between global law firm Kennedys and the University of Manchester has reached a successful conclusion with the implementation of next-generation fraud prevention software contributing to significant new revenues for Kennedys’ UK business.

The audit profession must get “serious” and “stop pretending” that catching fraud is not part of their role, says Brian Fox, president and founder of Confirmation, part of Thomson Reuters.

https://www.accountancyage.com/2020/09/07/auditors-must-stop-pretending-its-not-their-job-to-catch-fraud/

New rules mean banks must make extra security checks to cut fraud and protect card payments, explains Gareth Shaw

The global Covid-19 pandemic has created a multitude of challenges for companies and has forced the vast majority of us to work in ways which, even a few years ago, would not have been possible or practical.