Financial

Complaints about fraud and scams, current accounts and credit cards are at record highs, according to new figures published by the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) today.

The service, which resolves disputes between businesses and their customers and is free for consumers, received 73,692 overall complaints between July and September 2024. In the same period in 2023/24 it reported that it received 46,716 cases.

The newly released figures reveal that fraud and scams cases have now reached their highest quarterly level, with consumers lodging 9,091 complaints in the three-month period. That’s significantly higher than the 6,264 new fraud and scam cases lodged in the same period last year. In the previous quarter (April to June 2024) there were 8,734 fraud and scams complaints.

Two men have been arrested in connection with alleged investment fraud involving a collapsed Nottinghamshire company.

The company went into administration earlier this year, leading Nottinghamshire Police to receive multiple reports from investors claiming to have been defrauded out of significant sums of money.

The FCA has started criminal proceedings against 4 individuals for conspiracy to commit false accounting, with 3 of them facing further charges for fraud.

Terry Dodd, John Riley and Brian Flanagan have been charged for fraudulently abusing their positions as directors of the Dial-A-Cab Credit Union for their own personal gain.

The FCA alleges that the 4 individuals transferred funds out of the credit union for the benefit of themselves and their families.

Two individuals have been convicted for their roles in an £1.5m investment fraud following a prosecution brought by the FCA.

Between February 2017 and June 2019, Raymondip Bedi and Patrick Mavanga, defrauded at least 65 investors out of £1,541,799. The group cold-called consumers, directing them to a professional-looking website where they were offered high returns for fake investments in crypto.

The UK has launched a world-first bank transfer fraud refund scheme after more than two years in the works and last-minute changes influenced by industry lobbying and pressure from ministers.

From Monday, the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) is requiring more than 1,500 banks, fintechs and other payment firms to reimburse victims of authorised push payment (APP) fraud up to a limit of £85,000 per claim.

The Financial Conduct Authority has made a call to action as it looks to work with the industry to tackle financial crime.

In a speech delivered at the Westminster Legal Policy Forum keynote seminar, Andrea Bowe, director of the specialist directorate, said the dial was beginning to shift on the fight against fraud but warned “we should be under no illusion about the scale of the problem to fix".

Concerns have been raised regarding the inquiry into a £1 billion banking fraud case at HBOS, after it was revealed that evidence is still being received in its eighth year.

Former high court judge Dame Linda Dobbs, who was appointed in 2017 to investigate Lloyds Banking Group’s alleged cover-up of the scam, has been warned by critics that the protracted process benefits alleged perpetrators and prolongs victims’ suffering.

The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has said it will scale back mandatory fraud compensation despite a surge in APP scams.

The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has confirmed it intends to slash the maximum amount of fraud compensation banks and payment providers will have to pay out to scam victims.

https://moneyweek.com/personal-finance/savings/payments-regulator-slashes-maximum-fraud-compensation-limit

New figures published by KPMG UK show that money laundering has been the most common fraud type by value in the last six months, with nine cases heard in UK Crown Courts so far this year worth over £128 million

The number of fraud cases in UK Crown Courts increased by 16% in the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2023, with money laundering representing the highest value fraud cases, according to new data from KPMG UK’s mid-year fraud barometer.

Thomas Kalaris was found by the Upper Tribunal in London to have been dishonest when interviewed by the City watchdog.

Former Barclays wealth boss Thomas Kalaris has lost his appeal against a decision banning him from holding senior roles in the industry after he was found to have acted dishonestly when questioned about the bank’s capital raising at the height of the financial crisis.

https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/uk-news/2024/08/27/former-top-barclays-banker-loses-appeal-against-fca-ban-on-holding-senior-roles/