Fraud Has Become Endemic In Britain

Fraud has become endemic in Britain. We face daily texts and scam calls, and the internet is littered with fake websites and advert cons.
The pandemic has helped fraud to flourish, with criminals seizing on the Covid crisis — exploiting the vaccine rollout, Government support packages and the boom in online shopping — and making easy money from our life savings.
So to help protect your hard-earned cash, Money Mail is today launching a cut-out-and-keep fraud survival guide.
In our special series, we will warn you about the most prolific cons, teach you how to recognise the tell-tale signs of a scam, and explain how best to fight for your money back.
We start here by highlighting the top ten tactics deployed by fraudsters to target your savings — from cruel romance scams to sophisticated bank transfer cons in which unwitting victims are convinced to move their money into a criminal's account.
It comes as the latest figures from banking industry body UK Finance reveal that losses to fraud rose by another 30 pc to almost £754 million in the first six months of the year. 
It means criminals are now stealing more than £4 million from us every day.
Money Mail analysis of industry figures also shows that since January last year, there have been more than 4.6 million cases of fraud — costing us more than £2 billion.
Fraud has become endemic in Britain. We face daily texts and scam calls, and the internet is littered with fake websites and advert cons
1.

COPYCAT CONS
(32,196 cases in 2020-21)
£98.4 MILLION LOST
Impersonation fraud has soared in the pandemic and most of us will have received a phone call or text message from a fraudster at some point pretending to be from a trusted organisation, such as a delivery firm, the tax office or internet provider.
The con is simple: grab the target's attention — by claiming they owe money, for instance — and then lure them into providing personal details that can be used in a fraud.
Criminals can even use a tactic called 'spoofing' to make their phone call ID or text appear genuine by cloning the number or sender ID displayed on your phone.
The scams start with a text, call, email or social media message with an urgent request for personal or financial information.
You could also be asked to make a payment or move money.
There were 14,299 cases of impersonation fraud reported to banks in the first six months of this year.
Losses totalled more than £44 million — an increase of 111 pc.

Less than half of the stolen money was returned to victims.
A common recent scam includes automated robocalls from scammers pretending to be from your broadband provider or Amazon Prime.
You are told that you owe money or you are about to be disconnected unless you ring a number and pay up.
Another copycat fraud doing the rounds is the HMRC scam.
This sees victims told they owe the taxman and have to pay up urgently or they will get a criminal record.
2. BANK IMPERSONATION
(40,283 cases in 2020-21)
£181 MILLION LOST
A more frightening version of the copycat con is when fraudsters pretend to be calling from the police or your bank. 
Again, using telephone number spoofing, the calls appear genuine. 
You may be told to act immediately and are sometimes told that your money is at risk and you could lose it all.
The scammer will then ask you to transfer the money to another account to keep it safe. 
Fraudsters may even try to trick you by sending couriers to collect your cards, PIN or cash in person.
Often, crooks call victims pretending to be from their bank's fraud team, querying suspicious payments.
They also pose as police and claim staff at the target's bank branch are involved in a fraud using fake banknotes.
The victim is then convinced to take part in an 'undercover operation' and make a large withdrawal and hand w88ok it to the police caller for 'analysis'. 
There were nearly 19,000 cases of police or bank impersonation fraud in the first half of the year, with more than £84 million stolen — a rise of 131 pc.
Remember, your bank or the police will never contact you out of the blue to ask for your PIN, password or passcode, or ask you to transfer money to a safe account.
3. INVESTMENT SCAMS
(15,822 cases in 2020-21)
£242.8 MILLION LOST
YOU could lose your life savings or pension in an investment scam.
Fraudsters may target their victims via cold calls or lure them online with fake investment opportunities promoted on search engines and social media.
<div class="art-ins mol-factbox floatRHS news" data-version="2" id="mol-cab03530-2890-11ec-a32a-dfe0779d878c" website are the scammers' top ten tricks so you won't be fooled again!