Seven people have been arrested by fraud investigators as part of a criminal investigation into collapsed law firm Axiom Ince and around £66 million of missing client money.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said over 80 of its investigators, accompanied by Metropolitan Police officers, conducted nine raids across the South East early on Tuesday morning to bring people in for questioning and search for possible evidence.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/seven-arrested-as-sfo-launches-probe-into-suspected-fraud-at-law-firm-axiom-ince/ar-AA1jUHso

Even the best of us can fall victim to a scam, as the Pensions Age team saw just this week, after a colleague wrote a post on social media about some concert tickets she was looking to sell.

Excited by the opportunity, we all missed (or perhaps purposefully ignored) the obvious spelling errors, the fact that the post sounded, quite honestly, nothing like this person, and the fact that she had never mentioned this in person – we simply wanted it to be true.

https://pensionsage.com/pa/Blog-Too-good-tobe-true-removing-the-scam-stigma.php

If there is one thing that history has taught us about the evolution of cybercrime, it is that significant technological developments are a catalyst for dramatic shifts in criminal methods.

The evolution of cybercrime is marked by periods of rapid innovation followed by phases of consolidation. With artificial intelligence (AI) reshaping business operations, it's crucial to consider whether AI will spark a new era of cybercrime or simply enhance existing criminal efficiencies.

https://www.mishcon.com/news/cybercrime-bracing-for-impact-of-ai-a-big-change-or-business-as-usual

More than half a billion pounds has been lost to fraud so far this year, as the number of romance and purchase scams spiral.

The latest fraud data sent to the Government today by industry body UK Finance reveals a growing fraud epidemic.

The number of reported cases of romance scams has soared, rising 29 pc in the first half of the year, compared with the same period in 2022.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/crooks-flood-social-media-as-romance-fraud-cases-rocket/ar-AA1iN9Lo

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/