Figures released by Action Fraud as part of a new campaign against holiday scams show that typically more than a dozen people each day are being scammed.

For those who fall victim to the increasingly sophisticated stings, the cost can be high - averaging £1,844.

For some, the losses go beyond financial - as they end up arriving at the accommodation they thought they’d booked - only to discover it’s a con.

Overall, holiday scams reported to Action Fraud took more than £11 million from victims last year.

For years, digital technology has helped customers book holidays - but it’s also a big help to the criminals.

One holiday industry insider told me it used to be quite easy to spot fake holiday booking sites - but now it’s hard. Police forces report that around half of the scams involve social media.

We’ve gathered some of the important tips here:

• Beware of cloned websites purporting to be genuine firms - these can be incredibly convincing. If in doubt contact the company on a number you know to be genuine.

• Also, don't get fooled by social media posts offering low rates due to unexpected cancellations.

• Asking for direct bank transfers is a red flag - and so are requests for high deposits on so-called bargain breaks.

https://www.itv.com/news/2025-02-24/holiday-scammers-stole-more-than-11-million-from-brits-last-year

The number of criminal investigations completed by HMRC has increased 11% to 386 from 347, says multinational law firm Pinsent Masons, in the year to September 2024.

The total length of prison sentences handed down for tax evasion and tax fraud have also increased – to 525 years in the past year, up from 503 years.

Steven Porter, Partner and Head of Tax disputes and Investigations at Pinsent Masons says that targeted criminal prosecutions of tax evaders is partly used by HMRC to act as a deterrent and to persuade tax evaders to use HMRC’s Contractual Disclosure Facility. This offers individuals immunity from criminal prosecution in return for a full disclosure of the tax evasion they have been involved with.

The maximum penalty for income tax evasion is a fourteen-year prison sentence and/or an unlimited fine. This had doubled from seven years in the Finance Act 2024.

Several businesses with income and assets worth billions of pounds are registered at a terraced house on Chorley Old Road in Bolton.

The businesses all purport to be major corporations with multiple filings of audited accounts. 1 Stallion Limited claims to be in the oil and gas exploration sector with £4bn of assets, a £12.5bn turnover and offices on four continents. Similarly Avantulo SA Ltd has filed accounts claiming £26bn of turnover and £12.5bn share capital.

Also registered at that same address is e-bank Ltd, which claims to make £952m of turnover, mainly in the United Arab Emirates, and which identifies itself as a bank in its formal description (SIC code 64191). However, to be an actual bank requires a licence from the Financial Conduct Authority, yet no trace of the business exists.

Also previously registered at the address, but now dissolved, is Kinpro Holding GmbH Limited which claims that an entity with a similar name to an actual advisory firm from Abu Dhabi has invested £8.5bn into it.

Next door is XYZ Investment Holdings Ltd (formerly Stallion Holdings Ltd) which claims to have £7bn of assets, £2.5bn of sales and no plausible commentary that describes what the business actually does.

These companies all falsely claim to be audited by the same firm as 1 Stallion Limited.

The existence of these companies and their filing history has come to light after researcher Dan Neidle from Tax Policy Associates analysed data from Companies House to highlight the widespread abuse of the system.

Neidle has also established that although the filings indicate accounts which appear to have been filed by a named auditor, they are fake.

https://www.thebusinessdesk.com/northwest/news/2146508-fraud-or-fantasy-the-45billion-empire%C2%A0run-from-a-terraced-house-in-bolton

SPOTTING ROMANCE FRAUD

People who have fallen victim to romance scams tend to report the same pattern. If you or someone you know is using online dating or friendship sites and sees any of these signs, it may indicate you or they are being scammed:-

• Generally, the scam starts with an initial contact by the scammer. The scammer may be a member of the same online dating site as you or any online forum you have joined. The scammer may also contact you on social media such as Facebook.
• Their profile picture is very attractive. It’s common for scammers to use stolen photographs of beautiful people. You can check whether someone’s profile picture is associated with anyone else by accessing the website in Google Chrome, right-clicking on the picture and then clicking ‘Search Google for image’. Google will then display any other websites that the image is on. If the person seems to have a different name on other websites, chances are they are tricking you.
• The scammer asks you a lot of questions about yourself. This is because the more information they know about you, the easier you will be to manipulate. The scammer will spin a tale about him or herself as well. Eventually, you begin speaking over the phone. This stage can last for weeks, even months.
• The discussion is friendly at first but turns romantic very quickly. They shower you with compliments and claim to be falling in love with you. Victims usually report that this shift occurs very early on in the relationship – so if it all seems to be happening too fast, it might very well be a scam.
• Their story, or parts of it, change over time. If someone is making up their life story, it can be easy to forget what they’ve said before. If some part of their story doesn’t sound quite right or match what they said last month, that could indicate they are lying.
• Their grammar and spelling are poor. Many scams originate overseas. If the scammer tells you they’re from the UK but writes as if English is not their first language, this should be a red flag.
• They refuse to Skype or video call you, or meet in person. They always find an excuse as to why they can’t do this.
• Eventually, the scammer asks you to lend them money. They use any number of reasons: they need help to pay for the flight or other transport to meet you. They are in some sort of trouble. They need money to pay for medical care, either for themselves or someone close to them. Or they have a great business or investment opportunity that could benefit both of your futures.

https://www.ourwatch.org.uk/crime-prevention/crime-types/scams/protecting-against-scams/romance-fraud

Claims surged 10%, with 90 cases detected daily across multiple insurance lines.

With scams and other illegal activity continuing to rise, Allianz UK says that it has identified 33,027 instances of insurance fraud in 2024, amounting to £157.24 million in total value.

The insurer reported an average of 90 fraud cases per day, equating to £430,000 daily. The company says that this represents a 10% increase from the £142.38 million recorded in 2023.

Fraudulent activity spanned Allianz’s personal, commercial, and specialty lines, with claims fraud – where policyholders either inflate or fabricate claims – accounting for over £141 million. Application fraud, which involves providing false information when purchasing a policy, exceeded £15 million in detected cases.

The rise in fraud cases is not isolated to one insurer, either. Recently, not-for-profit insurer Ecclesiastical said that its claims specialists prevented over £4 million in fraudulent claims during 2024, an increase of nearly £1 million compared to 2023.

Government proposals to curb multibillion-pound benefit fraud involve “tools of an Orwellian surveillance state” and could put people through “absolute hell”, MPs have warned.

The Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill seeks to allow the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to recover money directly from fraudsters’ bank accounts and have the power to obtain bank statements from people they believe have enough cash to pay back welfare debts, but are refusing to do so.

Courts could also suspend fraudsters’ driving licences following an application by the DWP, if they owe welfare debts of more than £1,000 and have ignored repeated requests to pay it back.

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/national/24907279.mps-raise-concerns-orwellian-powers-crack-benefit-fraud/?ref=twtrec

New research reveals the financial impact to the taxpayer of failing to listen to whistleblowers. The Post Office Horizon scandal, the Countess of Chester/ Lucy Letby scandal and the collapse of the construction firm Carillion alone have so far cost the taxpayer £426 million.

In the first analysis of this kind, the whistleblowing charity Protect has analysed three major scandals of recent years in which a lack of accountability and a failure to listen to whistleblowers have been officially acknowledged. It found that failing to act when whistleblowers spoke up cost the government (at a conservative estimate):

• £178m in the Post Office IT Horizon scandal
• £39m in the Countess of Chester/Lucy Letby scandal
• £209m in the Carillion collapse scandal.

The figures include the costs of subsequent public inquiries, delays to essential work and compensation.

The money lost could have funded the construction of 14 new schools. Or it could have been spent on employing 1440 doctors or 2580 nurses for five years.

https://protect-advice.org.uk/ignoring-whistleblowers-costs-the-taxpayer-hundreds-of-millions-of-pounds/

Seven construction company connected insiders have today (4 February 2025) been sentenced for their key role in a £22 million fraud against the taxpayer.

Daniel Newton, 38, Philip Bailey, 36, Sean Dean, 41, Lee Hudson, 56, Sarah Gillard, 41, Bradley Mortimer, 39, and Kevin Ratcliffe, 43, have been sentenced to nine years and four months imprisonment, six years and three months imprisonment, seven years imprisonment, five years imprisonment, two years imprisonment suspended, three years and six months imprisonment, and 27 months imprisonment, respectively for cheating the public revenue, money laundering related offences, acquiring criminal property and organised criminal gang activities.

The Crown Prosecution Service worked closely with Kent Police and HMRC to build a case for trial that showed that the defendants were involved in the setting up of a building construction core company which invoiced customer companies for supply of labour which included VAT elements on these bills.

Our Interim Director of Legal Services Matthew Wagstaff provides an update on our ongoing review of our use of e-discovery software.

We use software to help identify evidence and other relevant material for use in our criminal investigations and prosecutions.

This ensures we can process very large amounts of digital material across our cases and is line with the approach taken by most law enforcement agencies.

At present, the SFO is reviewing our current and past use of this software.

A sufficiently large amount of work has been undertaken as part of this review so that I can now provide a substantive update. Some of this work is ongoing.

The Financial Ombudsman Service expects to receive more than 37,000 fraud and scam complaints next year.

The dispute resolution service said fraud and scams will account for 35 per cent of its incoming banking and loan cases in the next financial year.

The fraud and scams complaints it expects to receive will include cases involving authorised push payment (APP) scams, cryptocurrency fraud and ‘safe account’ scams.

Currently the Fos forecasts it will receive 33,000 cases by the end of the financial year.

Abby Thomas, chief ombudsman, said: “It’s concerning to see high levels of fraud and scams cases continue to come to our service.

“People can feel embarrassed to have fallen victim to a fraud or scam, but these crimes can be complex and incredibly convincing, and nobody should be afraid to come forward.”

In a published consultation of its plans and budgets for 2025-26, the service projected receiving around 240,000 new complaints.

Currently the Fos and the FCA are looking for input from industry on how to modernise the redress framework to ensure it is fit for the future.