FINANCIAL ADVICE CENTRE NEWS
Your Autumn Newsletter 2022
Scams and Fraud
An ‘epidemic of fraud’ impacting young and old
The latest annual fraud report published by UK Finance stresses the need for an urgent response to ‘the epidemic of fraud’ that the UK is currently facing.
The report reveals that £1.3bn was stolen by criminals through authorised and unauthorised fraud in 2021. In total, 56% of UK adults1 have received a suspicious communication or known someone who has in the last year, which equates to an estimated 29.6 million UK adults being affected by scams last year.
Preying on the elderly
Reportedly, scam victims aged over 70 lost about £977m2 in total between April 2019 and 2022. Official figures fail to capture the true extent of such fraud because these crimes remain under-reported, especially among elderly people who live alone.
Cost of living
During the pandemic, criminals exploited victims’ fears over coronavirus. Now, the cost-of-living crisis has become a new line of attack. The UK Finance report showed that authorised push payment (APP) fraud, where victims are tricked into transferring money into scammers’ accounts, leapt by 40% last year. Such techniques are now being used to prey on people’s financial preoccupations.
Tech effect
Everyone, young or old, can be a victim of fraud. Indeed, under-25s are more likely to be defrauded on the phone than older generations. One study3 found the youngest cohort 75% more likely to have been scammed this way than those over fifty-five.
Scammers are also seeing a growing opportunity in cryptocurrencies, which are not regulated by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority. In the year to May 2022, crypto frauds soared 58% to £226m, new research3 has found.
Don’t suffer in silence
Anyone can be a victim of fraud. We can help you protect your finances.
1 Canada Life, 2022, 2 Action Fraud, 2022, 3 NordVPN, 2022
Victim loses £48,000 in ‘screen sharing’ scam
The Financial Conduct Authority’s4 (FCA’s) ScamSmart scheme has turned its attention to so-called ‘screen sharing’ scams, whereby fraudsters take over their victims’ computers using remote desktop software.
Since July 2020, the FCA has seen well over 2,000 such cases, with victims losing a combined total of £25m between January 2021 and March 2022.
One 59-year-old woman lost nearly £50,000 when a scammer posing as a financial adviser convinced her to download screen sharing software on the pretext of helping her complete a Bitcoin investment.
Instead, they took advantage to access her banking details and other private information.
4 FCA, 2022