Frauds

Online banking and credit card fraudsters stole more than £10 million from people in the West Midlands, it has been revealed, with the region seeing the third highest level of bank account fraud in the UK.

https://www.expressandstar.com/news/crime/2021/05/29/more-than-10m-stolen-in-credit-card-and-online-banking-fraud-in-the-region/

The City of London Police issued Account Freezing Orders and Account Forfeiture Orders against assets worth £36m last year, compared to less than £1m in 2019, a jump of 3,600 per cent, according to research by law firm RPC, exclusively shared with City A.M. this evening.

https://www.cityam.com/exclusive-city-of-london-polices-asset-forfeitures-jump-by-3600-per-cent-as-priority-shifts-to-higher-value-fraud/

Has a company treated you unfairly? Our consumer champion, Sally Hamilton, is here to help

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/katie-investigates/fake-police-detective-convinced-buy-90000-gold-snatched-life/

A fraudster tried to eat the evidence when he was caught out by police in a £22,000 medical insurance scam.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/conman-tried-eat-evidence-caught-115215463.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw&tsrc=twtr

Food adulteration and fraud is big business with a 2018 European Commission report estimating the global cost as EUR 30 billion per year. But there is not only an economic cost to food fraud. There is a very real public health cost too with methanol poisoning, melamine in baby milk and industrial rapeseed oil examples of recent food frauds that have resulted in health scares and deaths.

https://www.chromatographytoday.com/news/ion-chromatography-ic/58/breaking-news/how-long-does-it-take-to-detect-food-fraud/55217#.YK1ju98Tf8g.twitter

Fraudsters have been jailed after ripping off elderly and vulnerable people in Shropshire and further afield out of almost £200,000.

https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/crime/2021/05/21/fraudsters-jailed-after-elderly-and-vulnerable-in-shropshire-among-those-conned-out-of-200000/

There has been a significant increase in fraudulent tenant activity in recent months, new research shows.

https://propertyindustryeye.com/sharp-rise-in-fraudulent-activity-leaves-agents-on-high-alert/

The UK government has confirmed plans to require pension trustees and scheme managers to rubber-stamp pension transfers as part of its efforts to crack down on pension scams.

https://www.pinsentmasons.com/out-law/news/uk-pension-transfers-subject-red-flag-anti-scam-regime

Romance scams are undoubtedly a particularly cruel form of fraud, preying on people’s need for love and connection - often via dating sites and social media - and exploiting that to steal not just people's money, but their self-esteem and sense of trust.

https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/love-sex/relationships/a36457311/romance-scams/

UK consumer group Which? is calling on banks and building societies to publish figures on the proportion of customers they refund for authorised push payment (APP) fraud.

https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/38061/which-calls-on-banks-to-come-clean-about-app-fraud-refunds