Phishing scams are a problem around the world – and it’s likely that one or more was at least partly responsible for the Fappening episode – but it seems that it is more of a problem in some places than others. Link to article
Month: September 2014
Fraudulent insurance claims running at 500 a day
Many Britons appear to take the view that honesty is not the best policy when it comes to taking out car insurance. Industry figures showed firms are uncovering almost 3,500 fraudulent applications each week. The Association of British Insurers (ABI) revealed that in 2013, UK insurers detected 180,675 attempted fraudulent applications for motor insurance – […]
Gang pocketed £68,000 in Oyster scam
Train workers jailed over £150,000 scam in which they issued ‘fake’ tickets and Oyster cards to passengers and pocketed cash for themselves. A group of South West Trains clerks with more than 50 years service between them have been jailed for a ticketing scam which netted them over £150,000. The office clerks – three men […]
Online banking fraud up 71%
Banks appear to have lost ground to the criminals after figures showed a 71pc rise in online banking fraud, to £29.3m for the first half of the year. It comes despite the rollout of more stringent log-in processes, such as issuing customers with “security keys”, calculators that generate new passwords each time a customer wants […]
Six rail staff jailed after ticket fraud uncovered
An investigation by British Transport Police (BTP) and South West Trains that uncovered a ticket fraud has led to jail sentences for six rail staff. The three men and three women, all employees of South West Trains, embarked on a massive ticketing fraud thought to be worth in excess of £100,000 over nearly two years, […]
Passport Office targeting postcodes for investigation
Officials are using the postal addresses of passport applicants to decide which areas to prioritise for fraud investigations and “additional checking”, the Guardian has learned. A hundred postcode districts have been identified by civil servants as places from which applications for travel documents for children should face extra scrutiny, leaked papers show. Link to article
Police arrest 13 people linked to £2.8m investment scam
The City of London Police have arrested 13 people in relation to a multi-million investment scam. Earlier this morning, a nationwide fraud operation with 120 police officers across England arrested the men on suspicion of defraud and money laundering. The gang behind the alleged fraud is believed to have run four boiler rooms, cold-calling people […]
Home Depot Probes Credit Card Hacking Claim
US home improvement chain Home Depot is investigating a possible attempt to hack its computer systems and steal customer data. The company is working with police to determine whether a breach took place after security expert Brian Krebs reported hackers selling details of stolen credit and debit cards used at the chain. Link to article
Rugby World Cup: Criminals plotting to hijack launch
Organised ticket touting gangs stand to make millions illegally from fleecing supporters by ‘flooding the tickets ballot’ on England Rugby 2015’s official website. Organised criminals with links to the arms and drugs trade were on Wednesday night plotting to hijack the Rugby World Cup ticket launch and hold countless ordinary fans to ransom on the […]
Britain’s ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ £70m Share Scam
One of the fraudsters jailed for his involvement in a Wolf of Wall Street-style £70m share scam ring has been ordered to pay back £154,412 within six months or face another two and a half years in prison. Jon Emery, 36, was one of the six fraudsters that was involved in the largest boiler room […]
Majority of email users can’t detect phishing scams
Four-fifths of business email users are unable to detect phishing scams, putting the enterprise at risk of cyber crime, security firm McAfee has warned. According to the McAfee Labs Threats Report: August 2014, 79 per cent of those business users who were subjected to the McAfee Phishing Quiz failed to detect that at least one […]
Could a device that reads your blood stop bank fraud
A new finger scanner that uses a person’s veins to verify their identity has been unveiled by Barclays bank. Consumer champion James Daley asks if the new technology could stop online hackers in their tracks. Last year, the British banking industry lost a little over £450 million in card fraud – a greater amount than […]
Craigslist buyer scams
Just five gangs in Nigeria are behind most Craigslist buyer scams. Five Nigerian criminal gangs are behind most scams targeting sellers on Craigslist, and they’ve taken new measures to make their swindles appear legitimate, according to a new study. In a new innovation, they’re using professional check-writing equipment plus U.S.-based accomplices to not raise suspicions […]
160,000 new malware samples created every day
15 million new malware samples were generated, at an average rate of 160,000 every day, according to the latest report from Panda Security. Trojans are still the most common type of malware, accounting for 58.20% of newly created threats; this is notably lower than the percentage recorded in the previous quarter said the report. This, […]
“Order no.” emails that contain malware
Our contact centre has received hundreds of calls about scam emails arriving in victims’ inboxes that are likely to contain malware. All the examples that have been reported to us use spoofed emails addresses in order to appear legitimate. They are designed to play on your curiosity and get you to download the attachment which […]
Crackdown on fraudsters ripping off Muslim pilgrims
Consumer watchdogs in Birmingham are spearheading a nationwide probe in a bid to stop fraudsters ripping off Muslim pilgrims. The city council has clinched £100,000 funding from the National Trading Standards Board to set up a taskforce to tackle crooks conning people booking religious Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages to Saudi Arabia. Birmingham Trading Standards is […]
Hill Dickinson counter fraud group
Welcome to the summer 2014 edition of the Hill Dickinson counter fraud group’s quarterly newsletter, fraud watch. We hope that you will find this both an enjoyable and informative read. 2014 has been an exciting year so far for the insurance industry and those involved in dealing with claims. Plenty of developments are keeping us […]