Banks warn people to be wary of fraudsters as an example of a surge in spoofing fraud.
According to the TSB, the average victim of spoofing scams loses £ 4,000, and household names such as Royal Mail, Amazon, and BT are used to seduce unsuspecting people to send money to scammers. increase.
Paul Davis, head of bank fraud prevention, said:
“We urge them to continue to suspect one-sided contact to avoid being a victim of fraud when the impact is least felt.”
Spoofing fraud is an attack in which criminals impersonate a company, company, organization, or individual as a key component, and reported cases have skyrocketed by 300% since 2019.
New industry figures for action fraud show that over £ 2 billion of fraud has been reported within a year.
According to the TSB, in 2021, more than half of customers’ transactions with fraudsters were due to spoofing fraud.
The TSB is a criminal pretending to be from a bank claiming that more than half of the money lost in spoofing fraud has been attacked on the victim’s account and the money needs to be transferred to a “safe account”. I decided that it was due to.
Authorities’ fraud accounted for 13% of the total lost if fraudsters claimed to be from public agencies such as police, HMRC, the National Crime Agency, and the NHS.
Technical support and phone provider scams account for 9% of losses, and TSB’s customer data analysis shows that BT, Virgin, and Sky are the most when scammers pretend to provide speed improvements and software assistance. It was used a lot.
Eight percent of the total loss was from scammers pretending to be from shipping companies such as Royal Mail, Hermes and DPD, and 7% was from scammers pretending to be from Amazon.
Davis said people should be vigilant and not easily convinced of sudden contact.
He also said that scammers thrive by causing panic, so people take the time to hang up or delete the message as the best way to deal with the suspect.
The bank fraud department never asks for a transfer. By dialing 159, people can find out if it really is a call from their bank.
The TSB also warns that scammers impersonate relatives and friends by sending emotional texts and email requests for financial assistance.
According to banks, family and friend scams cost an average of over £ 1,200 per case.
On Wednesday, a bank based in Edinburgh will release a Tackling Fraud Together report and will set up steps in the UK Parliament stating that it is necessary to stop fraud.
Phil Andrew, CEO of StepChange, a debt charity that contributed to the report, said:
“The pandemic has caused many households to lose little or no ability to cope with economic shocks. As rising living costs begin to bite, key consumers are from those who seek to exploit economic and other vulnerabilities. You will be protected. “
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