Official crime figures ‘failing to report 4m fraud cases’ meaning total number of offences should be 50% higher. Seven people are defrauded every single minute, according to shock new research by the Office for National Statistics. The true scale of crime across Britain is being distorted because almost four million frauds are being left out […]
Month: August 2014
UK Company Leads the Way in Beating Internet Fraud
Statistics show that there is a new victim of identity fraud every two seconds, but now a UK-company is leading the way in helping to defeat online fraud. Shocking statistics show that there is a new victim of identify fraud every two seconds and with so many people now having a profile online, that makes […]
£400,000 seized during investigation into Hajj fraud
Around £400,000 was seized from travel agencies in East London yesterday as part of an ongoing investigation into Hajj fraud. The joint operation between Newham Council’s Trading Standards Team, Birmingham City Council Trading Standards and City of London Police, saw searches on two travel agencies suspected of selling Hajj packages with false or no travel […]
Holiday misery for the scam victims
Three weeks ago Natasha McDonald, her husband and three children were standing outside the villa in Puerto Banús, near Marbella in southern Spain that they had booked for 10 days at a cost of £1,600. But there was no sign of the owner, or the keys. The villa company website was down and, in despair, […]
Fraudsters stole the bank details of 60,000 people
A Romanian gang have been jailed for stealing the bank card details of more than 60,000 people using an array of sophisticated spying and skimming gadgets seized during a series of police raids at their homes. The gang used hidden cameras and tampered with hole-in-the-wall machines to copy card details and pin numbers to steal […]
Why was credit card fraud so easy to commit?
My wife and I have Sainsbury’s Bank credit cards which we use for all our shopping, and typically pay between £700 and £900 a month to service the account. At the end of June the debit balance was just over £1,000. When I checked my emails I was surprised to see one from Sainsbury’s Bank […]
Five years worth of free travel
Bus passengers are being warned over a scam offering people up to five years worth of free travel on London’s transport network in exchange for email addresses. A poster spotted in Wandsworth claims one bus driver has “not been charging people for their journeys” over the past three years as part of Transport for London’s […]
Travel agencies raided over fraudulent packages
Two London-based travel agencies have been raided by police investigating the fraudulent selling of packages for the Hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. Officers from City of London Police and Birmingham Trading Standards arrested two men and seized around £400,000 during the two raids at properties in east London. Link to article
Aussie banks seen as easy targets for cyber crime
Australia’s banks will be increasingly seen as soft targets for cyber criminals. Ernst & Young’s global head of information security warns. On a flying visit to Australia to meet clients this week, Ken Allan said while banks here suffered fewer attacks than their European or US counterparts, they could be less prepared for criminal attacks […]
Biggest fare dodger in history
A high flying city executive who dodged rail fares for five years has been branded as ‘greedy’ and ‘selfish’ after his identity was revealed. Jonathan Burrows has been unmasked as the mystery fare dodger of East Sussex who hit the news after settling a £43,000 bill for unpaid tickets over five years. Link to article
Police ready to arrest airline ticket scam artist
CALIFORNIA – New developments are taking place in an alleged airline ticket scheme that supposedly swindled dozens of San Diego Filipinos out of thousands of dollars. After hearing complaints against Elvie’s Travels, the National City Police Department said they are looking for more of Nestor Abulente’s alleged victims as they prepare to arrest him. Abulente […]
UK card fraud beats all records
UK card fraud reached record levels in 2013 which means that consumers should prepare for more real-time transaction checks when buying goods, a fraud expert has predicted. The analysis from analytics firm FICO (based on Euromonitor numbers), reported that in 2013 UK card fraud rose 16 percent to a record £450 million, meaning that the […]
Paddy Power hack almost certainly led to ID theft
The theft of personal details belonging to 650,000 Paddy Power customers in 2010 has almost certainly led to some of those people falling victim to identity theft. The theft of personal details belonging to 650,000 Paddy Power customers in 2010 has almost certainly led to some of those people falling victim to identity theft, warns […]
Hackers Amass Over a Billion Passwords
A Russian crime ring has amassed the largest known collection of stolen Internet credentials, including 1.2 billion user name and password combinations and more than 500 million email addresses, security researchers say. The records, discovered by Hold Security, a firm in Milwaukee, include confidential material gathered from 420,000 websites, including household names, and small Internet […]
Holiday phish based on genuine hotel booking
Scammers have launched a devious phishing campaign aimed at tricking customers of targeted hotels into transferring funds to a drop account. Securobods suggested cybercrooks either hacked into a Spanish hotel’s system or persuaded someone to hand over customer records on a false pretext before using the purloined details to trick their customers into transferring funds […]
Iata terminates AirFastTickets licence
Iata has terminated AirFastTickets’ licence, meaning the OTA can no longer sell flight tickets in the UK and Germany, TTG has learned. The aviation authority initially suspended the OTA from trading from these offices as well as in Greece, in June, after it emerged that AirFastTickets owed a total of €45 million, with the amount […]
Airline collapses
New airline Fly Olympic AB, which was selling flights from London to Africa via Sweden and Greece, has cancelled all its services and filed for bankruptcy. It claimed that after two weeks of trying to find a solution to its financial difficulties, it has decided to throw in the towel. It blamed a new operation […]
Improve employee screening to avoid fraud
The typical organisation loses 5 per cent of its annual revenue each year through employee fraud, according to the 2014 Report to the Nation on Occupational Fraud and Abuse. And it is not just a small minority of employees that are the likely culprits. Studies have found that up to one third of a company’s […]
Credit Card Fraudster Gets 9 Years
A Turkish man has been sentenced to more than nine years in federal prison for his role in a fraud scheme that involved the compromise of payment card details at a San Diego hotel. Alper Erdogan was sentenced for conspiracy to commit computer hacking, conspiracy to commit credit card fraud and aggravated identity theft, according […]
Internal Fraud in the Hotel Industry
Incidences of staff fraud are increasing year-on-year (an 18% increase alone in 2013), and hotel businesses are particularly vulnerable. After all, hotel staff handle sensitive customer data, cash and the personal belongings of guests. Hotel Industry Magazine asks CIFAS, the UK’s fraud prevention agency, for advice on how hoteliers can mitigate the risks of internal […]