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The Financial Conduct Authority has handed down a massive fine to the supermarket bank following a cyber-attack In November 2016. The attack did not result in any theft or loss of personal customers data, but did lead to 34 transactions where funds were debited from personal accounts and millions were stolen.

Tesco bank is the financial arm of one of the UK’s largest supermarket chains and holds 5.6 million customer bank accounts.

The FCA says that Tesco failed to protect its customers and is holding the bank accountable for its lapse in risk management. This is the first time the … Read more

A new report states that £500 Million has been stolen from customers of British banks in the first half of 2018 alone.

Industry group UK Finance says £145 Million of the stolen amount was due to APP scams, or Authorised Push Payments. APP crime is the fastest growing type of crime and these new figures show a sharp increase in the amount stolen from 2017. In short, APP fraud is where a victim believes they are paying for a legitimate service or item and the criminal poses as a trusted third party and redirects the payment to a different account.… Read more

A new report states that £500 Million has been stolen from customers of British banks in the first half of 2018 alone.

Industry group UK Finance says £145 Million of the stolen amount was due to APP scams, or Authorised Push Payments. APP crime is the fastest growing type of crime and these new figures show a sharp increase in the amount stolen from 2017. In short, APP fraud is where a victim believes they are paying for a legitimate service or item and the criminal poses as a trusted third party and redirects the payment to a different account.… Read more

An unnamed 40-year-old man has appeared in a Singapore court to face charges for his suspected involvement in a series of timeshare recovery scams.

It is alleged that between 2014 and 2017 the 40-year-old had cheated more than 20 timeshare membership owners out of approximately $600,000 by claiming to terminate their timeshare memberships. The case was first investigated by the Consumer Association of Singapore when they received complaints from customers who had paid for services that had not been performed. The ringleader and his associates cold-called potential customers and offered unregulated services to those who had bought timeshare products. … Read more

GDPR made its highly anticipated debut back in May of this year and, until recently, the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”), who are in charge of enforcing the new regulations, had yet to issue any fines.

There had been a lot of speculation as to when the first fine would be issued and to whom, and now Facebook has been issued with the maximum fine of £500,000 under the terms of the Data Protection Act 1998. Under the terms of the legislation, companies must report data breaches to regulators within 72 hours and failures to adequately protect information can result in … Read more

Imagine your loved ones were scammed out of everything they had worked their whole lives for

That’s exactly what happened to one family whose elderly parents were conned by someone they trusted. Syed Bukhari pretended to be ‘Gerry’ from the bank and went on to steal more than £350,000 of their lifesavings including their home.

Bukhari, 37, befriended the ex-merchant navy officer and his wife of 40 years by at first running errands for the pair. Both of the elderly couple suffered from dementia, however, despite this, they were enjoying their retirement and leading somewhat independent lives. They were first … Read more

Equifax, the credit rating agency, has been fined £500,000 by the ICO, after a data breach left the personal information of 15 million Britons exposed.

Equifax is one of the big three credit rating agencies. They keep information on all of us, so organisations such as lenders and landlords can check to see if you are financially trustworthy. Equifax controls some of our most sensitive information and a year ago we learned cyber thieves stole the private information of millions of people all over the world. In the UK the information of 15 million people was stolen and in the … Read more

The Financial Ombudsman Service has upheld a complaint bought by five individuals who lost nearly £100,000 after transferring their savings following a free pension review.

The decision made by FOS could offer hope to thousands of other victims, who have lost their savings in SIPP’s, a successful way to claim back their money.

The five individuals invested into schemes, including Ethical Forestry and Global Plantations, between 2013 and 2016. The 5 victims alleged Guinness Mahon Trust Corporation worked with unregulated introducers, to facilitate non-standard investments.

The five victims were cold called and persuaded to invest their pension pots into … Read more

The Financial Conduct Authority and The Pensions Regulator have issued a statement, to warn the public to be vigilant when receiving cold-calls, regarding pension investments.

 

The warning comes after 253 victims contacted Action Fraud to report pension investment fraud. This resulted in more than £23 million lost to pension scammers in 2017 alone. The average loss equates to £91,000 per victim.

Needless to say, these are highly sophisticated scammers, who convince people into transferring their pensions into fraudulent schemes. Victims can lose their life savings and hard earned money, which could leave them facing a retirement future they … Read more

A man has been sentenced to 13 years in prison, after he was found guilty of conspiring to con dozens of investors out of millions of pounds. Michael Nascimento, ran a call centre where investors were offered shares in fraudulent companies. But instead, the court heard, how he spent some of the proceeds of his crimes on private school tuition, Arsenal season tickets and expensive trips.

For four years, Nascimento ran a ‘Boiler Room’, another name for a high pressure call centre, where investors, many of whom were elderly and vulnerable, buy shares in companies with plausible sounding names. … Read more