Category: Fraud

The cost of fraudulent Universal Credit (UC) claims in Northern Ireland almost doubled to £102m last year, a public spending watchdog has said. The figure has emerged in the auditor general’s annual audit of the Department for Communities accounts. The department said a significant number of the fraudulent claims date to the start of the pandemic. At that time certain conditions were eased to allow unprecedented numbers of people to get financial help. In the previous year the cost of fraudulent UC claims was £51.8m. The number of households on UC in Northern Ireland almost doubled between February and July…

Ex-Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone has been charged with fraud by false representation, the Crown Prosecution Service has said. The 91-year-old billionaire businessman failed to declare overseas assets believed to be worth in excess of £400m, according to investigators. The charge was authorised by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) on Monday, following an investigation by Revenue and Customs (HMRC). Andrew Penhale, chief Crown prosecutor, said: “The CPS has reviewed a file of evidence from HMRC and has authorised a charge against Bernard Ecclestone of fraud by false representation in respect of his failure to declare to HMRC the existence of…

The money lost to Covid fraudsters and civil service blunders is more than 10 times all the biggest heists in history combined, Labour analysis has shown. The Treasury has had to write off £11.8bn in public funds which were wrongly claimed by fraudsters under the various Covid support schemes, or lost by mistake. By contrast, the top 10 heists in British history amount to only £1.1bn in today’s terms when adjusted for inflation. Labour accused Rishi Sunak of a “great Covid robbery”. The Great Train Robbery of 1963 led to the loss of £2.6m, while the most lucrative heist of…

Italian and Austrian authorities have dismantled a massive fraud scheme set up by a criminal network that used Italian companies to simulate business leases and false tax credits. The perpetrators deprived the Italian authorities of at least EUR 440 million. With the help of Eurojust, approximately 90% of the proceeds have been recovered and 12 suspects have been arrested. The arrested suspects allegedly belong to an organised crime group (OCG) that defrauded the Italian State of at least EUR 440 million. The OCG used Italian companies to sell false tax credits, to simulate business leases in order to obtain COVID-19-related…

The rate of fraudulent online financial attacks jumped 233% between 2019 and 2021, according to an analysis of 18 billion global banking transactions carried out by Portuguese technology company Feedzai, which specializes in fraud prevention. According to the new Financial Crime Report “The RiskOps Age”, the number of frauds has grown at a faster rate than the rate of legitimate online transactions, reflecting a substantial increase in risk. Low risk, high reward “Living a digital lifestyle brings a world of convenience, but it also offers a low-risk, high-reward environment for fraudsters,” said Jaime Ferreira, vice president of global data science…

Mexico experienced a 220% increase in attempted ecommerce fraud attacks during its pandemic peak, calling for new strategies from public and private sectors through 2022. Not only have there been more reported instances of online fraud, but the worrying trends are growing in unanticipated ways, causing events such as account takeover and kiosk fraud, a new report finds. The revelations are worrying for online retailers in Mexico who have battled to stay afloat through two years of unprecedented industry pressures. Companies are now steeling themselves to increase online revenues even as web-based fraud attacks increase. Cyber-fraud reached its pandemic peak…

Lorraine McLaren and her husband Edwin were seen as “saviours” to the cash-strapped homeowners who turned to them in desperation when financial difficulties struck. But really Edwin used his financial know-how to dupe unsuspecting victims into signing over their houses, which were then sold from under them. And Lorraine benefited from her husband’s fraudulent scheme to live it up in a £762,000 home in Bridge of Weir, Renfrewshire, with lavish holidays in Dubai and private schools for her kids. Shameless Lorraine even splashed out on a ring worth £100,000 while her victims were left homeless. The duplicitous pair were only…

Fake it till you make it? Financial fraudsters are setting up fake websites and posing as financial consultants from call centers. Late last month, Bulgarian police took down a financial crime ring that was responsible for stealing at least €10 million. Experts say that this could be happening here, too, targeting financial customers. According to CSC’s Domain Security Report, “Internet fraud is typically targeted, using a variety of threat vector forms, and is a systemic issue,” said Ihab Shraim, chief technology officer, Digital Brand Services at CSC. “These threat vectors start with a fraudulent domain containing a look-alike brand name,…

A new report by the UK’s Treasury Select Committee has called on the government to work harder to tackle the ‘growing fraud epidemic’ in the UK. The report – which focuses on Economic Crime – urges the government to legislate against online fraudulent adverts and to consider whether online giants should reimburse those who fall victim to scams on their platforms. The Committee also called on the government to make reimbursement for victims of authorised push payment fraud mandatory. Amongst a number of recommendations, the report called on law enforcement to be resourced appropriately to tackle the scale of the…

Thousands of counterfeit Super Bowl-related merchandise seized from vendors from all over Southern California is worth an estimated $97.8 million, federal authorities said Thursday. Operation Team Player – an effort involving several federal agencies, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, and the NFL – has been cracking down all year on the illegal importation of counterfeit sports apparel and merchandise. The joint task force has been scouring online marketplaces, local flea markets such as the Santa Fe Springs Swap Meet, and Santee Alley in Downtown L.A.’s Fashion District, looking for fake jerseys, hats, rings, T-shirts, jackets, tickets, souvenirs, and other…

HMRC says nearly 9% of furlough scheme was fraudulently claimed or otherwise wrongly paid out last year More than £5.5bn of taxpayer money from the government’s coronavirus assistance schemes including furlough, self-employed support and “eat out to help out” was paid out to fraudsters or given out incorrectly. It emerged on Thursday that £5.2bn paid out by the government under the coronavirus job retention scheme, widely known as furlough, ended up in the hands of fraudsters or was paid in error. HM Revenue and Customs acknowledged in its annual report that about 8.7% of the £60bn it paid out under…

With “Partygate” still dominating the headlines it was always going to be a tough start of the working week for Boris Johnson. The prime minister’s Monday, however, got even worse when his counter-fraud minister quit over the government’s decision to write off £4.3bn in fraudulent Covid loans. At the dispatch box in the House of Lords yesterday, Theodore Agnew “staged a dramatic public resignation”, The Guardian said. Lord Agnew, who was a Treasury and Cabinet Office minister, said his decision was not an attack on the PM, but the row will leave Johnson “fighting Conservative anger on yet another front”,…

A judge has demanded an investigation after two members of an organised crime gang were able to successfully apply for £145,000 in Covid ‘bounce back’ loans. Asif Hussain, the ringleader of an international ‘chop shop’ ring, which exported stolen Range Rovers and other expensive cars to Dubai, was able to secure £50,000 in funding offered by the Government to help businesses struggling during the pandemic. Another gang member, Ibraaz Shafique, was able to receive two huge loans, firstly for £50,000 then for £45,000. The maximum loan available was £50,000. Both men had previous criminal convictions. A judge said ‘the most…

A new survey has highlighted the importance of technology in the efforts of financial institutions to combat financially-motivated criminals. The study, published by Guidehouse & American Banker/Arizent has recommended that tech solutions need to be aligned with broader fraud mitigation programmes in order for organisations to start making ground on bad actors. Ongoing vulnerability & risk assessments, adequate investments and coordination with third parties have also been identified as essential to maximize the benefits of available solutions. Despite a market saturated with advanced technology tools, the truth is that many financial institutions are struggling to effectively deploy and integrate anti-fraud…

There is no better representation of the decline of the English upper class into the global rich’s servant class than Ben Elliot. On the one hand, the co-chairman of the Tory party is now a rent collector, hauling in money for the Johnson administration from the Russian rich and native hedge fund bosses. On the other, he is an actual servant: an upmarket flunkey, to be sure, praised by society magazines for his “puppyish schoolboy charm”, but a flunkey nonetheless. Elliot is a founder of the Quintessentially “concierge” service that gives the super-rich anything they want: luncheon on an iceberg;…

As part of our latest job scams campaign, the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) has been working with JobsAware and Cifas, to understand the impact of scams, and how information collected as part of a scam, is then used by scammers. Signs of a potential job scam Job scams are on the rise, and in 2020, seasonal job scams increased by 88% compared to 2019. With figures predicted to increase again this year, it’s important to remain vigilant and familiarise yourself with the signs of a potential job scam or fraudulent job advert. The first two phases of this campaign…

The Home Secretary Priti Patel announced the relaunch of the Joint Fraud Taskforce on 21 October 2021. In light of the 24% rise in fraud during coronavirus (COVID-19), the Home Secretary Priti Patel announced the relaunch of the Joint Fraud Taskforce on 21 October 2021, which will play a vital role in countering fraud through public-private sector partnerships. A crime that leaves devastating financial and emotional effects on victims will now be tackled jointly in a first-of-its-kind agreement between private sector companies and the government to protect people’s hard earned cash. To coincide with the first meeting of the relaunched…

The phrase ‘social engineering’ may sound like something out of a behavioural psychology textbook, yet it represents a real and present threat facing citizens and financial institutions around the world. In fact, social engineering is a leading cause of financial crime today, wherein criminals dupe their victims through the use of psychological manipulation in order to commit financial fraud, such as disclosing confidential information and eliciting payments. And it’s on the rise. Fourthline recently gathered data pertaining to millions of bank account openings throughout Europe in the past year and found a 37% increase in social engineering attempts by fraudsters…