Scams

NatWest has issued a warning over Martin Lewis scams - after customers lost as much as £150,000 to them. NatWest’s annual Celebrity Scam Super League table reveals the celebrities fraudsters are exploiting without their knowledge to steal millions of pounds.

ITV and BBC star Martin Lewis tops the list, closely followed by Elon Musk. Jennifer Aniston and Lauren Cohan appear for the first-time and the majority of celeb scam ads linked to cryptocurrency investments.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/newsbirmingham/natwest-issues-martin-lewis-warning-after-customers-lose-150000/ar-BB1oauUf?ocid=BingNewsSerp

London police have arrested two individuals in connection with a scheme using an “SMS blaster” to send thousands of fraudulent messages. These messages, posing as banks and official organisations, aimed to deceive the public into sharing personal information.

The investigation, believed to be the first of its kind in the UK, uncovered the use of an illegal telephone mast functioning as an “SMS blaster.” This device enabled the perpetrators to bypass mobile networks’ security measures designed to block suspicious texts.

Social media scammers are impersonating every major airline operating in the UK, according to new analysis.

Consumer group Which? said fraudsters on X – formerly known as Twitter – are responding to messages sent to official accounts.

It found scammers impersonating airlines to ask for enough information to allow them to commit identity fraud.

Officials are warning people to remain vigilant over scam emails purporting to be from supermarket, Asda.

Action Fraud, the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime, has received 1,754 reports in two weeks relating to fake emails purporting to be from Asda.

The emails state that the recipient has won a free prize which can be claimed by completing a survey.

Even the best of us can fall victim to a scam, as the Pensions Age team saw just this week, after a colleague wrote a post on social media about some concert tickets she was looking to sell.

Excited by the opportunity, we all missed (or perhaps purposefully ignored) the obvious spelling errors, the fact that the post sounded, quite honestly, nothing like this person, and the fact that she had never mentioned this in person – we simply wanted it to be true.

The next UK government should introduce a bill that forces technology, social media and telecoms firms to contribute £40 million a year to fight fraud and scams, says UK Finance.

Authorised Push Payment fraud has soared in recent years, with UK losses of more than $500 million last year. To tackle this, regulators are rolling out new rules for the banking industry that, from October, will see the vast majority of money lost to APP frauds reimbursed to victims.

Detectives investigating a string of rogue trader reports in Retford have charged a suspect.

Nottinghamshire Police’s fraud unit launched an investigation after residents reported paying for roofing repairs that were not carried out.

A 38-year-old man has been charged with seven counts of fraud by false representation.

Police have warned people in Staffordshire to "stay vigilant" after receiving a "number of reports" from fraudsters pretending to be solicitors.

The county's police force has issued advice surrounding the scam, which sees residents called by people claiming to be from a local solicitor.

The financial fraudsters then tell those on the phone that they can get back their money for a price.

https://www.expressandstar.com/news/local-hubs/staffordshire/2024/05/20/warning-as-fraudsters-pretend-to-be-solicitors-in-latest-phone-scam/

Barclays has launched a monthly 'Scams Bulletin' to inform consumers of emerging trends in criminal fraud tactics.

The Bulletin monitors claims made across all Barclays personal and business current accounts, providing a single view of data and emerging trends to educate consumers on how to spot and stop scams at source, and protect their funds.

Britons lost more than £1bn to fraudsters last year, new figures show, as purchase scams surge to a record high and social media firms face tough questions over the high levels of fraud originating on their platforms.

Criminals stole a total of £1.17bn through unauthorised and authorised fraud in 2023, according to data reported by members of trade body UK Finance, which include banks, card issuers and other payment firms.

Total losses were down four per cent from the previous year, while banks prevented a further £1.25bn of unauthorised fraud through their security systems.