A court has heard how a travel agent specialising in Christian-themed holidays defrauded customers who booked a ‘Bible Lands Cruise’. Bob Fleming, 62, is alleged to have ploughed the money into a Turkish hotel and then encouraged customers to extend their holidays to include a stay at the hotel instead of using booking fees to […]
Month: March 2016
UK police received 100,000 reports of phishing scams in 2015
Almost 100,000 people in the UK reported that they were the target of phishing scams in 2015, with the majority targeted via email campaigns. So says the City of London Police’s Action Fraud and National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, which has warned that phishing, along with spear-phishing, is being increasingly used to target vulnerable Brits. The […]
Bank fraud leaps by a quarter to £755m
Banking customers are being urged to watch out for a growing army of fraudsters as losses due to fraud leaps by more than a quarter in just one year. Criminals, often working in gangs, are targeting personal and business banking customers remotely to drain current accounts, new evidence suggests. There was worrying growth in the […]
Banks should not refund online fraud victims
Britain’s most senior police officer has been accused of attempting to shift blame on to victims of online fraud after he suggested consumers should not be refunded by banks if they fail to protect themselves from cybercrime. Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, the Metropolitan police commissioner, said customers who had fallen foul of online fraudsters were being […]
Card fraud soars – this is how you can stay safe
Criminals are getting better at sealing out money, with card fraud soaring by more than a quarter in the past year. Financial fraud losses surged by 26% year-on-year in 2015 amid a growing threat from deception scams and cyber attacks, a report has found. Some £755 million-worth of losses were recorded in 2015 across payment […]
Hotel manager jailed for £350,000 false invoice scam
A hotel manager who stole more than £350,000 from his workplace through a false invoice scam has been jailed. Eamonn Canavan, 47, admitted fraud by abuse of position part way through his trial at Guildford Crown Court in January. He was sentenced to three years and four months in prison at the same court on […]
Phishing scams are becoming a big problem in the UK
Phishing scams are on the rise in the UK, with almost 97,000 people having contacted the police last year reporting that they had been phished in one form or another (and remember – that’s just reported incidents). That figure is from a new report just published by the Action Fraud and the National Fraud Intelligence […]
Social media users warned over rise in online ticket fraud
Online ticket fraud leapt by 55% in 2015 as criminals increasingly made use of social media to rip off music and sports fans, according to new research. More than a fifth of the crimes were instigated via Facebook, with Twitter accounting for a further 6%. The figures come in the wake of warnings that some […]
Court hears Goldtrail defendants were victims of ‘fallacy’
The Court of Appeal heard yesterday that former XL Leisure boss Phil Wyatt and his business associates were victims of a “fallacy in the approach” of Goldtrail liquidator PwC when found liable for a £1.4 million claim in 2014. Wyatt, Magnus Stephensen, Halldor Sigurdarson and Wyatt’s investment vehicle Black Pearl Investments were found liable for […]