Financial Fraud

As our world becomes more interconnected, financial fraud has become a means of exploiting our vulnerabilities. The statistics paint a stark picture: in 2022, £1.2 billion was stolen, with a further £1.2 billion stopped by the banks (source: UK Finance).

However, these figures only scratch the surface of the threat faced by millions. An article from the National Trading Standards indicated that some form of financial fraud had targeted 40 million people in the UK in 2022.

The impact of financial fraud can be devasting, but the chart below from gov.uk shows that 36% of fraud incidents lead to no monetary loss.

The most significant number of losses come from the higher values. The challenge in getting back money is whether the individual has authorised the payment. As the table below shows, there is a switch towards authorised payments, which makes it hard to get any money back.

Using people, we know can create confusion:

The image below from NatWest shows how Scammers use Celebrities to encourage people to part with their money.

But it is not just celebrities. Our own Jamie has become the “face” of a WhatsApp contact for a company called gainvalley.com, which is a trading platform. Of course, he has no connection with the firm, and there is very little that he can do to stop this.

We have heard numerous stories of other adviser firms being contacted by “the client” using the client's “email”, requesting a significant sum of money. The scammers had cloned their email, and fortunately, a red flag was that the client said they had changed their bank account.

What to do

The scammers are becoming more sophisticated. Below are some helpful tips from the FCA website as to what might be a scam

The FCA has a fantastic website called Scam Smart, which offers handy insights: https://www.fca.org.uk/scamsmart.

If you are unsure of something you have received, please do contact us, and we will look at it.