Last Year Sees Rise in Scammers Trying to Steal Money
In the last year, scams have been at an all-time high with fraudsters deploying many different sophisticated methods and psychological tricks to target their victims.
The rise in scams
Scams have become more and more ubiquitous, worsened only by the events of the coronavirus pandemic. 2021 saw a huge rise in scams with over £4m stolen by fraudsters daily during the first half of the year according to the BBC.
These scams invariably involved individuals sharing their personal details and handing over money. In just the first half of the year, there was £754 million stolen through fraud. There was a 70% increase in the final 3 months of 2021 for criminals trying to con people.
How are scammers fooling individuals?
Scams where victims think they are paying a legitimate organisation (authorised push payment fraud), rose by 71% in 2021 to £355 million. There are a range of ways these scams can be carried out be it fraudulent delivery texts requesting payment or even higher-value thefts such as impersonating solicitors during the purchase of a property.
Another common way to catch individuals out is through the use of “purchase scams” where consumers order goods online which fail to arrive or, indeed, never existed to begin with. One of the ploys fraudsters use to encourage the purchase of these fake goods is to create a sense of urgency or scarcity, using advertising ploys such as one-time offers or limited availability.
There has also been a rise in the use of “psychological tactics” according to Barclays bank. Scammers would establish an emotional connection and target people based on their specific personality traits. Worryingly, these scammers are able to take advantage of an individual’s trusting nature in order to target them.
A rise in romance scams
In a moment where the use of dating apps is at an all-time high, scammers have also been using dating apps to establish emotional connections, sometimes targeting individuals over the course of multiple weeks. Scammers can prey on someone’s trusting nature, identifying certain personality traits, and eventually getting them to transfer money. These romance scams were up by 62% in the last year.
Offering investments and loans
Investment scams saw victims lose an average of £15,788 from October to December 2021 according to Barclays. Preying on people who wanted to grow their assets, fraudsters would offer an opportunity for a high return on investment. The Barclays research found that 3 in 10 people would be willing to change to an investment or savings provider, even if they had not heard of them, if the promise of return was better than their existing set-up.
Similar offers have been presented offering personal loans to customers, only once money has been deposited into the fraudster’s account – which has surprisingly seen a huge wave in the last year. Whilst these scams may show obvious warning signs to some, you can use this checklist on how to check if a lender is legitimate.
Creating a sense of fear
Another common scam has been the impersonation scam where a criminal has pretended to be from a well-known institution; especially during the pandemic there was an increase in illegitimate correspondence from banks, the police or the NHS. In these cases, fraudsters used the authoritative title to create a sense of fear in their victims, who are more likely to comply and follow instructions from a well-known institution. If you unsure about a request, check it out, but use your normal telephone numbers for these sources to check, rather than clicking on links or numbers those provided in an email, text or letter that you suspect may be a scam.
