Category: Fraud

A popular English championship golf course is set to be sold after becoming embroiled in a high-profile fraud scandal. Mill Ride Golf Club in Berkshire was one of a number of assets forfeited by the wife of a jailed banker following a six-year National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation into fraudulent acquisitions. Zamira Hajiyeva was forced to give up the Berkshire course – as well as a £14million Knightsbridge House – after the NCA concluded it was obtained as a “direct result of large-scale fraud and embezzlement, false accounting and money laundering.” Her husband Jahangir is the former chairman of the…

A new report launched today has found that Asian crime syndicates have integrated new service-based business models and technologies including malware, generative artificial intelligence (AI), and deepfakes into their operations while establishing new underground markets and cryptocurrency solutions for their money laundering needs.The report, titled Transnational Organized Crime and the Convergence of Cyber-Enabled Fraud, Underground Banking, and Technological Innovation: A Shifting Threat Landscape, is the second in a series of ongoing threat analyses produced by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).“Organized crime groups are converging and exploiting vulnerabilities, and the evolving situation is rapidly outpacing governments’ capacity to…

At the start of the 24/25 academic year, the Students Loans Company (SLC) is reminding students to be vigilant of smishing scams. Scammers target students at this time of year as they receive their first maintenance loan payment. SLC is expecting to pay £2bn to students over the autumn term and last year it stopped £2.9m of maintenance loan payments being taken by smishing and phishing scams, where students received and acted on false communications. Smishing, which is fraud involving text messages, is currently the most popular form of scam, with students usually being asked to click a link to…

A father and son have been jailed for a total of five years after pocketing £136,000 in an elaborate scheme of purchasing reconditioned steam irons and returning them with forged receipts to Argos.Paul Mathews, 62, and Dean Mathews, 40, both of Queens Road, Wisbech, purchased heavily discounted Tefal steam irons, worth £400, and then returned them to Argos.Paul Mathews and Dean Mathews both pled guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering and were sentenced to three years and two years, respectively, at Norwich Crown Court on 13 August 2024.The steam irons that were purchased by Paul and Dean…

More than half of cryptocurrency-related ads on Facebook analysed by Australia’s consumer regulator were scams or violated Meta’s policies, a court has heard. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) took Meta to court over celebrity scam ads in 2022, alleging the company had engaged in false, misleading or deceptive conduct in publishing the ads, and aiding and abetting the false conduct by the advertisers. In a ruling issued last week, it was revealed the ACCC has alleged that, since at least January 2018, “Meta has been aware that a significant proportion of cryptocurrency advertisements on the Facebook platform have…

Consumers have been encouraged to be vigilant when shopping online after research showed fraud was rife on secondhand marketplaces, with Depop, Shpock and Preloved named the worst sites, and problems also discovered with industry giants Amazon and eBay. A survey of 1,300 buyers by Which?, the consumer champion, found that 32% had been scammed on a secondhand marketplace in the two years to January. The most common ruse involved consumers receiving incorrect goods or nothing at all, while others were delivered an empty package or counterfeit goods. The survey comes as an international investigation by the Guardian, Die Zeit and…

Fans of Taylor Swift are being targeted by a wave of concert ticket scams flooding social media, as the global music icon prepares to tour the UK for the first time in six years this summer.Analysis by Lloyds Bank of scam reports made by its own customers found a surge in fraud cases from those buying tickets for the star’s upcoming – and sold out – Eras Tour. Since tickets went on sale in July last year, more than 600 customers have come forward to report being scammed, significantly more than for any other music artist. The average amount lost…

As fraudsters continue utilizing innovative technology for their illicit activities, financial institutions find themselves in an endless game of catch-up. A particularly concerning development for UK banks involves the surge in deepfake technology threats. According to a report from Sumsub, there was a 300% increase in deepfake incidents from 2022 to 2023 in the UK, with AI-driven identity fraud ranking among the top five in 2023. The UK’s vulnerability to such attacks is heightened due to its economic prominence, widespread adoption of digital banking, and considerable online presence. In an interview with the Financial Times, David Duffy, CEO at Virgin…

20 November 2023 — Tether, the largest company in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, and leading global crypto exchange and Web3 technology company OKX, today announced that they have assisted the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) in an investigation that led to Tether proactively and voluntarily freezing approximately 225 million in USDT tokens in external self-custodied wallets linked to an international human trafficking syndicate in Southeast Asia responsible for a global “pig butchering” romance scam. The joint investigation was conducted using tools from blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis, and the action by Tether represents the largest-ever freeze of USDT in history. During…

A retired couple lied to their banks after falling under the spell of scammers who stole £86,000.Ann and James were so “brainwashed” by the promise of giving money to their children they lied when banks tried to stop their payments to fraudsters. The couple, both retired nurses, were scammed into taking out loans as well as handing over their life-savings. The financial industry said the scam tactic, known as ‘The Spell’, was the biggest challenge it faced.Ann and James, who has prostate cancer, were lured into putting their money into a bogus cryptocurrency platform after spotting an advert on social…

UK Finance today releases its half-year fraud report, detailing the amount its members reported as stolen through fraud and scams in the first half of 2023.  Ben Donaldson, Managing Director of Economic Crime at UK Finance, said: In the first six months of this year ruthless criminals had already stolen more than half a billion pounds from victims through fraud. In addition to the financial losses, these crimes often involve callous manipulation of the victim which can cause psychological and emotional harm. As the UK Finance report shows, criminals are increasingly using social media, online platforms, texts, phone calls and…

The former chairwoman of Ukraine’s central bank dubbed it one of the biggest financial scandals of the 21st century. Valeria Hontareva was describing the alleged theft of US$5.5 billion from PrivatBank, once the country’s largest commercial lender. The suspected masterminds are the bank’s two oligarch owners: Ihor Kolomoisky and Hennadiy Boholiubov, who stand accused of absconding with an amount roughly equal to 5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. According to court records, both men are said to have recently been living in Switzerland, though Kolomoisky appears to be spending time in Israel. Reporters also uncovered numerous previously unknown…

The United States has urged financial institutions to pay attention and recognize an infamous virtual currency investment scam known as “pig butchering,” believed to have cost victims in the U.S. billions of dollars. Cryptocurrency investment scam known as “pig butchering” is estimated to have cost victims in the U.S. billions of dollars. (Photo: Jernej Furman, Flickr, License)The U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued the alert on Friday, detailing the scam’s approach and providing behavioral, financial, and technological red flags to help identify and report associated suspicious activity. The “Pig butchering” fraud, according to FinCEN, is similar to the technique…

Three of Spain’s top banks have joined forces to develop a platform for exchanging information and data to assist in the fight against and prevention of financial crime. BBVA, Banco Santander, and CaixaBank have launched FrauDfense, a joint business that will unify the three banks’ anti-fraud operations to address “one of the biggest challenges facing the banking sector: financial fraud.” They have presented the project to various Spanish supervisors and regulators. “The project covers the fight against a variety of fraudulent practices, which can be very diverse and sophisticated, such as admission fraud, where customer information is compromised by impersonating…

Defendants Were J.P. Morgan’s Former Head of Global Precious Metals Business and J.P. Morgan’s Former Head Gold Trader in New YorkTwo former precious metals traders at JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPMorgan) were sentenced today for engaging in fraud, attempted price manipulation, and spoofing as part of a market manipulation scheme that spanned over eight years, involved tens of thousands of unlawful trading sequences, and resulted in over $10 million in losses to market participants. Gregg Smith, 59, of Scarsdale, New York, was sentenced to two years in prison and a $50,000 fine. Michael Nowak, 49, of Montclair, New Jersey, was…

BARCLAYS today (Wednesday) won a UK Supreme Court appeal that turned on the extent of banks’ duties to protect customers from fraudsters, in a closely watched decision lawyers say could stem a flood of litigation. Fiona Philipp, a music teacher and long-time customer, sued the bank in 2020 after she was tricked into transferring 700,000 pounds ($906,000) to accounts in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in an elaborate so-called authorised push payment (APP) fraud. Such scams have become Britain’s largest type of payment fraud and cost customers 583 million pounds ($752 million) in 2021, a rise of 39% on 2020,…

People over the age of 70 are being disproportionately targeted by courier fraud, new data from the City of London Police reveals. Data from the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, run by the City of London Police, the national lead force for fraud, revealed that people in their 70s or older lost more than £12.6 million to courier fraud last year, 77 per cent of all money stolen by this type of fraud. The split of fraud reports made by men and women aged 70 or above was 37 per cent and 63 per cent. Shockingly, data shows 153 reports were…

Auditors in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have uncovered a massive public payroll fraud, involving tens of thousands of ghost workers across government ministries, costing the public purse over US$800 million annually, according to a statement from the General Inspectorate of Finance. The audit found that 145,604 civil servants are paid based on fabricated payroll identification numbers, while 53,328 have more than one identification number and therefore receive multiple salaries. In addition, 43,725 officials are paid without being on the staff list of ministries that are supposed to employ them.The fraud was orchestrated by 961 payroll officers, who themselves…