The Court of Appeal has dismissed the appeal of former XL Leisure boss Phil Wyatt and his associates against a £1.4 million liability for the failure of Goldtrail Travel. The appeal court found all 10 of the appellants’ grounds for appeal failed except for a “minor aspect” concerning the compensation for dishonest assistance to former […]
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Travel agents targeted in Hajj fraud operation
A string of travel agents in the Birmingham area have been visited this morning (7 April 2016) after being identified as potentially selling unlicensed package tours to Mecca. Officers from the City of London Police, Civil Aviation Authority and Birmingham City Council’s Trading Standards team worked in partnership across the city as part of a […]
Online fraud increases fourfold in 2015
A new report by the City of London Police’s National Fraud Intelligence Bureau has revealed the cost of the 4,910 reported cases was 425% greater than the £2.2 million reported the previous year. The most common type of fraud remained the sale of airlines tickets, with Nigeria, India and Pakistan the destinations most targeted lasy […]
Scamwatch: dodgy holiday websites
Stay one step ahead of the fraudsters with our series of articles giving you the lowdown on the scams they use to trick people out of their hard-earned cash – and how to avoid being taken in by them. This week, the online travel scams that cost British tourists close to £12 million last year. […]
Latest phishing email contains personal data
Action Fraud says it has received thousands of calls about a new email scam that’s sweeping the country. It’s of particular concern, they say, as the emails include detailed personal information such as full name, address and postcode. They are also – unusually – grammatical and correctly spelled. The emails purport to be chasing up […]
Travel agent accused of defrauding cruise customers
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 […]
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 […]
CEO fraud
A scam termed “CEO fraud” or “business email crime” has proven costly for businesses across the globe. According to the FBI, losses incurred from this scam have cost companies more than $2bn (£1.43bn, €1.81bn) over the past two years. Under their modus operandi, criminals impersonate email accounts of chief executives and ask employees to transfer […]
Man found guilty of internet scams
A 23-year-old Victorian man found guilty of multiple internet and credit card fraud scams has appealed against his sentence and had it reduced to one year in jail. Joash Boyton was involved in a number of computer scams using stolen credit card data from the time he was 17, until he was 20 years old. […]
Victims of timeshare fraud
Holiday home scam victims at risk of losing money a second time to fraudsters who pose as legal professionals offering to help. Victims of timeshare fraud risk losing money to a second scam where criminals pretend to help them get cash back, experts warn. Most will have spent thousands of pounds on a share in […]
Bank details of 100,000 Britons for sale on internet
Banking details stolen from more than a million people worldwide can be bought from an website on the open internet, rather than on the “dark web”, for as little as £1.67. Criminals are selling the stolen credit and debit card details of 100,000 Britons on the internet in new market said to be “the largest […]
Travel firms fall victim to email phishing CEO fraud
A travel industry anti-fraud group has warned of a new form of cybercrime threatening the sector. Three companies, including a national business, have been recent targets of ‘payment request’ fraud, with one losing an entire season’s profits in a single transaction. However, industry anti-fraud group Profit warns the scam, which first came to light last […]
Two in five Brits wary of travel scams
Almost three quarters of consumers say they wouldn’t purchase a holiday from a website which looks unprofessional. Two in five (43 per cent) Brits are afraid of becoming scam victims when booking holidays, new research from the global online review community Trustpilot has revealed. This is one of the busiest times of the year for […]