Two women were arrested following eight reports of courier fraud in East Lancashire this month.

Victims were defrauded out of nearly £100,000 worth of cash or valuable items during these incidents.

A 26-year-old woman from West Bromwich was stopped on the M6 and arrested on suspicion of fraud by false representation on Wednesday evening (October 12).

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/two-arrested-after-lancashire-courier-fraud-victims-scammed-out-of-almost-100000-worth-of-cash-and-valuables/ar-AA1i6uKs

The FCA has fined Equifax Ltd (Equifax) £11,164,400 for failing to manage and monitor the security of UK consumer data it had outsourced to its parent company based in the US. The breach allowed hackers to access the personal data of millions of people and exposed UK consumers to the risk of financial crime.

https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/equifax-ltd-fine-cyber-security-breach

Ex-Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone has plead guilty and agreed to pay a civil settlement of £652,634,836 after admitting to fraud.

The 92-year-old said “I plead guilty” at Southwark Crown Court on Thursday when accused of failing to declare more than £400m held in a trust in Singapore to the government.

He has been sentenced to 17 months in prison suspended for two years.

https://news.stv.tv/sport/ex-f1-boss-bernie-ecclestone-agrees-to-pay-652m-after-admitting-fraud

A man who was scammed out of more than £130,000 worth of cryptocurrency has appeared on a TV show to talk about his devastating experience.

Steve Williams, from Bolton, appeared on the BBC One's Rip Off Britain yesterday morning, Monday.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/man-speaks-being-scammed-132-040000450.html/

Not every fraud is the result of opportunism. There are many reasons – both overtly criminal and misguided but well-meaning – why people turn towards economic crime.

https://www.icaew.com/insights/viewpoints-on-the-news/2023/oct-2023/understanding-the-mindset-of-fraud

The economic crime and corporate transparency bill is currently in the final stages of the legislative process. The bill, if enacted, is set to make the most significant changes to corporate criminal liability laws for a generation.

https://www.ftadviser.com/opinion/2023/10/04/is-your-business-prepared-for-govt-s-failure-to-prevent-fraud-rules/

Businesses in the UK should be considering how a new ‘failure to prevent’ fraud offence should be accounted for in their compliance programmes and contracts, experts at Pinsent Masons have said.

https://www.pinsentmasons.com/out-law/news/act-ahead-of-new-failure-to-prevent-fraud-offence

Businesses found to have breached UK data protection laws when falling victim to cyber attacks could receive lower fines in respect of those infringements if they engage appropriately with the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), under a new agreement forged by the NCSC and the UK’s data protection authority.

https://www.pinsentmasons.com/out-law/news/uk-gdpr-fines-linked-ncsc-engagement

QR codes that re-emerged into our lives during the COVID-19 pandemic have given rise to a new wave of advanced phishing attacks targeting thousands of organizations worldwide. These evasive threats also known as quishing (QR phishing), lure end users into scanning a QR code sent to them via email using their mobile device camera, redirecting them to malicious websites aiming to steal their login credentials, harvest financial information, or infect their devices with malware.

https://perception-point.io/blog/qr-code-red-quishing-attacks-and-how-to-prevent-them/

A man has been charged in connection with reports of romance fraud involving three women.

Cieran Griffin was arrested in Nuneaton on Friday 29 September and taken to Cheshire for questioning.

The 37-year-old from Coventry, has since been charged with three counts of fraud by false representation.

The charges relate to allegations of romance fraud involving the women from Cheshire, Warwickshire and Hertfordshire.