A new HMRC "taskforce" will begin a crackdown on payments made during the Covid crisis. A new HMRC fraud and error taskforce has been established in a bid to claw back overpayments made to UK taxpayers during the Covid pandemic.

The Treasury confirmed: "We have set up the £100m Taxpayer Protection Taskforce of 1,200 HMRC staff to combat fraud, one of the largest and quickest responses to a fraud risk by HMRC. 13,000 one-to-one fraud and error enquiries were opened in 20/21 and HMRC wrote to 75,000 people. We have so far stopped or recovered £743m of overclaimed grants in 20/21.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/hmrc-sets-taskforce-crackdown-payments-094838293.html

The next UK government should introduce a bill that forces technology, social media and telecoms firms to contribute £40 million a year to fight fraud and scams, says UK Finance.

Authorised Push Payment fraud has soared in recent years, with UK losses of more than $500 million last year. To tackle this, regulators are rolling out new rules for the banking industry that, from October, will see the vast majority of money lost to APP frauds reimbursed to victims.

https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/44227/next-uk-government-should-make-big-tech-pay-to-fight-scams---uk-finance

A new study from the Association of British Insurers (ABI) revealed that a significant number of individuals remain unaware of “ad spoofing,” a method used by fraudsters to deceive people who have experienced road traffic accidents into using illegitimate websites.

According to the survey, 81% of respondents who were aware of insurance fraud had never heard of this tactic.

https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/uk/news/auto-motor/most-uk-motorists-unaware-of-common-insurance-scam--abi-report-490872.aspx

In a notable victory against organised fraud, car insurance broker 1st Central and insurance law firm Keoghs have won five tort of deceit claims against a fraud ring, resulting in over £140,000 in damages awarded.

The policy hijack scam involved alleged at-fault accidents occurring far from the policyholder’s address, claimants (the supposed driver and passengers of the third-party vehicle) also residing long distances from the collision site, and a single individual reporting multiple incidents.

https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/uk/news/auto-motor/1st-central-keoghs-win-against-insurance-fraud-ring-490860.aspx

Victims lost an average of £20,032 to the scams, where fraudsters pose as police officers or bank officials and trick householders into handing over money, valuables or bank cards to a courier.

City of London Police said on Tuesday that people in their 80s were the most likely to be targeted and accounted for 43% of all victims, according to data from Action Fraud.

https://www.perspectivemedia.com/more-than-28-7m-lost-to-courier-scams-which-target-the-elderly/

• £1.17 billion was stolen last year – amounting to £3.2 million every day
• There was a 50% increase in the number of people hit by “authorised” payment scams between 2020 and 2023
• £36.5 million was stolen in romance scams – up 17% on a year earlier
• 64p for every £1 stolen was reimbursed to victims, up from 59p in the £1 a year earlier

Laura Suter, director of personal finance at AJ Bell, comments on the UK Finance Annual Fraud report 2024:

https://ifamagazine.com/brits-lose-3-2-million-a-day-to-fraudsters-as-authorised-scams-rise/

The UK to review their fraud prevention procedures.

Sweeping reforms to the attribution of corporate criminal liability for fraud and other economic crimes are already in force. Previously, companies could only be prosecuted for fraud if the directing mind – such as the CEO or managing director – was directly involved. But the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 overhauled rules around corporate criminal liability.

https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/businesses-should-review-their-fraud-prevention-procedures-before-its-too-late-tom-stocker-4640048

In 2023, a huge £2.3billion was lost to fraud in the UK, with reported cases rising by 18%.

But which types of fraud are rising the most quickly? And what steps can be taken to avoid falling victim?

The experts at Scams.info have studied the number of reports across a five year period to determine which fraud types are most on the rise, and which types are becoming less common.

https://ifamagazine.com/2-7-million-card-fraud-loss-reports-are-filed-every-year-in-the-uk/

House purchases could be severely disrupted by new rules designed to protect against fraud, experts have warned.

In an effort to detect “Authorised Push Payment” (APP) fraud, banks will be able to stop payments that they have flagged as suspicious for up to four days under incoming rule changes.

Green initiatives are certainly susceptible to fraud. This is partly because governments are spending more on them. We all know fraudsters are opportunistic and will follow money, wherever it goes. They also tend to like the sort of payments associated with green initiatives – grants you apply for, incentive payments and tax reliefs. And because environmental impacts can be harder to define, environmental benefits can be purposefully overstated and negative impacts understated.

https://www.civilserviceworld.com/in-depth/article/green-fraud-tackling-abuse-environmental-schemes-nao