Identity fraud biggest threat as number of scams soars

Some 113,000 cases of identity fraud were reported last year – a 10% increase on 2010.

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by Victoria Bischoff on Jan 26, 2012 at 16:21

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Identity fraud biggest threat as number of scams soars

UK fraud levels increased by 9% last year, new figures revealed today, with identity scams the biggest contributor.

Over 236,500 cases of frauds were identified during 2011– the highest number ever recorded, according to CIFAS, the UK’s Fraud Prevention Service.

Nearly half of all cases were incidents of identity fraud, with some 113,000 cases reported to the CIFAS – up 10% on 2010.

Facility takeover fraud – where a fraudster gains access to and uses a victim’s bank account or credit card for example – meanwhile has surged by nearly 300% in just five years and now accounts for 18% of all fraud.

This means two data driven frauds make up over 58% of all frauds identified, CIFAS said. What’s more, the number of victims of both types of fraud combined has risen by 10% since 2010.

Richard Hurley, CIFAS communications manager, said: ‘All organisations must recognise this threat, and review how they try to prevent such frauds: whether that is by reviewing their security procedures and increasing identification requirements when dealing with applications, or by ensuring that individuals regularly change passwords and PIN numbers’.

Incidents of misuse facility fraud – where an account has been legitimately obtained but later used fraudulently – also increased some 13%. The number of false insurance claims recorded, however, has fallen 23% from 537 to 396 cases.

According to CIFAS, these figures confirm that as austerity bites, economic crime continues to be a stealthy, insidious danger.

‘Many of these frauds will undoubtedly be committed by organised criminal elements, but many will also be committed by people who seemingly feel that their circumstances leave them no choice,’ Hurley explained. ‘Equally, financial desperation leaves many susceptible to potential scammers’.

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3 comments so far. Why not have your say?

Here are four typical ones doing the circuit:

(1) A Mumbai sounding 'engineer' calls to say he understands you are having a problem with your computer (BTW, everybody is having problems so what an easy elevator pitch?). He might even apologise for not calling sooner or he might even say he's from BT. I've had both. He quickly suggests you log onto a particular website and enter your email address. Then he says he is going to log into your computer to help you trace the problem so go ahead and enter your password. (He is recording all this info at his end). The chat goes on and gets tedious and he picks up other useful ID snippets of conversation. If you let him log in remotely (as genuine engineers do) you have no idea where he is going and what info he is downloading esp if he says to leave it for a bit while he runs some tests, etc etc,

(2) An email arrives from Fed X asking you to click a link about a package they could not deliver. Once you click anything can go wrong. Instead take a note of the reference they quote and contact FedX. I did and got back a quick reply from their fraud team to say it was a scam.

(3) Same as FedX except this one is from the Better Business Bureau to say they received a complaint from the public and can you click on a link to sort it out. Click and be damned!

(4) Then we've all seen the Advance Fee Fraud emails of the Nigerian General or even a person with your surname they can't trace who died and left millions unclaimed so can you help his poor friend or relative to transfer the money to you and you get 20-30%!! Wow! Crime DOES pay since I've seen this this scam around constantly for the past 40 years starting with telexes and gullible people all fall for it. I have a folder with over 100 of these emails I've archived and there are some really creative ones but most in bad English but they seem to work.

BE VIGILANT ALWAYS and report these scams when they arise.

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I have received several emails from UPS - supposedly - about a consignment they have been unable to deliver. I have deleted these as they surely are a scam.

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S G

Jan 27, 2012 at 09:12

I have had two instances of fraudsters trying it on when I was selling my car. Two very similar,

1st was they sent £0.00 to my paypal and sent an offical looking email from paypal saying funds where held until delivery of the car, So i went a long with it, with difficults with pick up and them wanting me to leave the car somewhere, so after stringing it out, I explained I was going on holiday and flying out of scotland for a few weeks (No home address was known and I live in the south) I told them they could collect the car and gave an address of a road in the middle of nowhere in the highlands..... Never heard anything again, but would loved to have known if they had gone looking for it.

2nd was similar, but they wanted to pay by some post office company. So again, I dragged it out, bartered with them a bit, played dumb and got them to let me closest location, then got them to send me directions as I could not find it, after about the 10th email, they never wrote back....

So if you want a good laugh, play dumb and string them along, it's fun and it wastes their time as they think they are on to a winner.....

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