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A mum of two from Birmingham was left in debt after scammers raided her bank account over a five day long sophisticated scam.

The Mirror reports how Hannah Greaves was tricked by cruel fraudsters who convinced her they were working on behalf of her banks fraud department. The fraudsters built up a credible story over the course of five days and were able to gain her trust, before stealing over £9,000.

Hannah said: “I can’t believe how believable the fraudsters were. They seemed to know my bank, NatWest’s website inside out, the layout of the screens and the language the … Read more

The Financial Conduct Authority is warning investors to be vigilant when investing their hard earned cash. Action Fraud has revealed that over £197 million was reported as stolen by scammers in 2018. On average, victims were conned out of £29,000 each, the FCA and Action Fraud are warning investors to be on the lookout for increasingly sophisticated fraudsters.

Data from the FCA call centre shows, that the most common scam reported involved investments in shares and bonds, forex and cryptocurrencies. The companies offering these products are not registered with the FCA and together they account for 85% of all … Read more

A student has been jailed and four others have been sentenced over a £67,000 phone fraud. The judge in the case said the defendants acted as money launderers for a gang who defrauded a care home owner out of her entire life savings and destroyed her life.

The scam caused the victims business to fold and left her an emotional wreck. Judge Stephen Ward said: “If it were not for people like you, serious criminals would find life a lot more difficult”.

The victim was contacted in June 2017 by scammers posing as Barclays Bank to say her personal and … Read more

Action Fraud working alongside the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, has stated that it has seen an increase in reports of this nature over the past six months. Former victims of wine fraud, who were tricked by scammers between four and six years ago, are now being targeted again by individuals claiming that they can resell their wines in return for an insurance or shipping fee. Between 1 June 2018 and 31 December 2018, there were 22 reports made to Action Fraud, with victims losing a total of £97,914. Victims were typically aged between 46 and 86 years old, and sent … Read more

Thousands of people have lost their entire life savings through pension mis-selling, now the government has taken action and changed the law to stop this from happening.

Fraudsters have been using the term ‘Free Pension Review’ and over the past four years it is estimated that £46.7 million has been lost in pension cold-calling scams. And the stories of those who have been targeted are truly heart-breaking, with thousands of pensioners after having saved their entire lives, now facing financial hardship in their retirements. This lead to campaigners calling for an immediate pensions cold-calling ban, to help protect … Read more

The partner of serial Timeshare fraudster John “Goldfinger” Palmer is facing trial in Spain this week, in a case which police say could hold the key to his murder. Christina Ketley and Richard Cashman are accused of selling non-existent timeshares on Palmer’s orders, whilst he was behind bars serving 8 years for fraud.

In June 2018, Ms Ketley offered a £100,000 reward for information leading to the prosecution of those responsible for the murder of John Palmer. Ms Ketley said: “It haunts us every day to think that whoever was responsible was clearly watching John, stalking him like an animal … Read more

A conman who tricked a pensioner into spending money on a worthless product to cut her heating bills has been sentenced to 3 months imprisonment. Adrian Hillman, a former director of Eco Shield UK Ltd, cold-called his elderly victim in November 2015 and offered her a product, he said would drastically cut her heating bills, and help her save money.

The victim agreed to pay the £2,000 to the conman after he visited her in her home and convinced her this worthless product would be a worthwhile purchase. However, when the job was complete, the elderly victim was horrified to … Read more

A London based tax returns company has been fined £200,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office for sending 14.8 million marketing text messages between July 2016 and October 2017. The ICO began an investigation after receiving over 2,100 complaints from members of the public.

The company, named as Tax Returned Limited, did not follow the proper guidelines when contacting people. The ICO found that the company had not taken the reasonable steps to make sure the data complied with the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulation, which requires a company or organisation obtains specific consent from people receiving the messages, prior … Read more

The BBC programme, Watchdog, has investigated the story of a young victim who was beaten and left unconscious in a park and then had his entire inheritance raided from his bank account. To make matters worse his bank, NatWest, refused to help him.

Attackers made 39 transactions in one day, raiding the victims entire account, all whilst he was lying unconscious in hospital. NatWest refused to accept that the £20,000 spending spree was nothing to do with him, despite being provided evidence he was in hospital at the time the transactions were made. The young victim, named in the … Read more

Marriott Hotels and Resorts has been hit with a huge class-action lawsuit over the data breach which saw 500 million customers affected, and that’s just the start. Under GDPR, the hospitality giant could face the world’s first significant fine under the new data protection act.

Despite Marriott being headquartered in the US, the breach falls under European wide GDPR rules, meaning the group now faces financial penalties of up to 4% of its annual global revenue. And in 2017 Marriott generated approximately 22.9 Billion US dollars in revenue last year. The news doesn’t get any better over in the US … Read more