Frauds

Former insurance broker Gary Whipps has been sentenced to two years imprisonment after pocketing £46,125 through falsely representing a firm’s contract documents to increase the insurance premiums cost being paid by his clients.

https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/uk/news/breaking-news/former-insurance-broker-sentenced-for-fraud-492370.aspx

Elliot Castro was 16 and selling mobile phones from a Glasgow call centre when he first conned someone out of their bank details.

Soon he was enjoying a champagne lifestyle, that included first class flights and luxury watches.

The teenager would go on to mastermind the theft of £2.5m from an audacious series of scams before finally brought to justice in a department store toilet in Edinburgh.

Doctored images are the current hack fraudsters are employing to make fake claims from their insurers – with providers recently revealing they have seen a rise of 300% in the last year.

With the rise in technologies like Artificial Intelligence making false claims through photographs all the more accessible to the public, the experts at Independent Advisor Car Insurance offer a refresher on the consequences of getting caught lying to your insurance provider.

https://londonlovesbusiness.com/motor-fraud-skyrocketing-insurance-expert-deters-driver-from-lying-on-their-application/

Police are warning people living in Suffolk to remain vigilant after nearly £1million was lost to fraud.

Data from Action Fraud revealed nationally more than £28.7m was lost to courier fraud in the last year with a total of £987,589 lost in Suffolk between April 2023 and March 2024.

A landlord has appeared in court charged with 89 alleged offences including theft, extortion and fraud.

Mark Fortune, 55, made no plea as he appeared from custody at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Tuesday, May 28.

He was charged of 35 counts of theft, 36 charges under legislation related to unlawful evictions and harassment of tenants, two of extortion and three of fraud.

https://news.stv.tv/east-central/edinburgh-landlord-mark-fortune-facing-89-charges-including-theft-and-fraud

More than half a billion pounds has been lost to fraud so far this year, as the number of romance and purchase scams spiral.

The latest fraud data sent to the Government today by industry body UK Finance reveals a growing fraud epidemic.

The number of reported cases of romance scams has soared, rising 29 pc in the first half of the year, compared with the same period in 2022.

Which? have issued a stern warning to people heading on their summer holidays with four popular scams catching unsuspecting travellers out.

Action Fraud say that there were 6,640 reports of fraud relating to holidays in 2023 alone, with £12.3m lost to scammers in total.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/experts-issue-warning-over-four-140907381.html

West Mercia Police are urging pensioners to be vigilant after more than £200k was lost in the region to courier fraud.

The force has revealed that they received 121 reports of fraudsters 'purporting to be police officers or bank officials’ between April 2023 and March 2024.

£233,659 was lost in the region to courier fraud with £28.7 million nationwide.

A new study from the Association of British Insurers (ABI) revealed that a significant number of individuals remain unaware of “ad spoofing,” a method used by fraudsters to deceive people who have experienced road traffic accidents into using illegitimate websites.

According to the survey, 81% of respondents who were aware of insurance fraud had never heard of this tactic.

Two men are to stand trial for alleged involvement in a £150,000 car purchasing scam across Northern Ireland, a judge has ordered.

Thomas Roberts (30) and Shane McDonagh (25) are accused of defrauding seven victims through bogus online vehicle sales.

The defendants, both of Coppermill Road, Staines in England, were arrested in May last year following a lengthy police investigation.