Action Fraud working alongside the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, has stated that it has seen an increase in reports of this nature over the past six months. Former victims of wine fraud, who were tricked by scammers between four and six years ago, are now being targeted again by individuals Asserting that they can resell their wines in return for an insurance or shipping fee. Between 1 June 2018 and 31 December 2018, there were 22 reports made to Action Fraud, with victims losing a total of £97,914. Victims were typically aged between 46 and 86 years old, and sent … Read more
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A student has been jailed and four others have been sentenced over a £67,000 phone fraud. The judge in the case said the defendants acted as money launderers for a gang who defrauded a care home owner out of her entire life savings and destroyed her life.
The scam caused the victims business to fold and left her an emotional wreck. Judge Stephen Ward said: “If it were not for people like you, serious criminals would find life a lot more difficult”.
The victim was contacted in June 2017 by scammers posing as Barclays Bank to say her personal and … Read more
A couple who made a fake sickness claim to Jet2holidays have been convicted of fraud and ordered to pay back almost £30,000. Martin and Linsey Brown, from Lancashire, submitted a false claim against Jet2holidays for gastric illness, after staying at a resort in Marmaris, Turkey. The couple claimed they suffered with stomach cramps, diarrhoea, vomiting and nausea, arising from food poisoning. They claimed the whole family, including their children, were bed-bound, because of food served on their all-inclusive holiday. However, after being tipped off by another guest, hotel owners used CCTV to collect evidence, including the couple dancing at the … Read more
The BBC programme, Watchdog, has investigated the story of a young victim who was beaten and left insensible in a park and then had his entire inheritance raided from his bank account. To make matters worse his bank, NatWest, refused to help him.
Attackers made 39 transactions in one day, raiding the victims entire account, all whilst he was lying unconscious in hospital. NatWest refused to accept that the £20,000 spending spree was nothing to do with him, despite being provided evidence he was in hospital at the time the transactions were made. The young victim, named in the … Read more
Just two days before Black Friday launched, Amazon has suffered a major data breach, which caused customer names and email addresses to be unveiled on its website. Amazon has emailed the customers affected, but has refused to say how many customers were affected. Amazon say this is not a breach of the website’s security or any of its systems, but a technical issue, that led to customers names and email addresses being posted.
Amazon said: “We have fixed the issue and informed customers who may have been impacted.”
Customers who received an email were told: “Our website inadvertently disclosed … Read more
A former financial advisor has been jailed for his involvement in a multi-million pound investment fraud. Neil Bartlett has been sentenced to 8 years imprisonment for scamming £4.5 million from victims, which he used to fund a lavish lifestyle of travel and gambling.
Police in Merseyside began to investigate Bartlett after receiving a number of complaints from Action Fraud, about his business practices. The scheme involved fooling victims into believing they were investing their pensions and life savings into investment accounts with interest. What he was actually doing was filtering the money through his company to pay himself this … Read more
Sharife Elouahabi has been jailed for six years for falsely claiming over £100,000 from the disaster fund.
Elouahabi told authorities that he had been living with his uncle and family in the tower and alleged to be a member of the El-Wahabi family, five of whom had died in the fire. In reality, he had no connection to them at all. He also told authorities he had suffered constant nightmares, anxiety and weight loss because of the tragedy. Nine days after the fire, he approached Kensington and Chelsea council claiming he was the nephew of Mr El-Wahabi, who died alongside … Read more
A travel firm based in Leicester ran by three men has been running a multi-million pound scam. The firm falsely claimed to be licensed to sell Hajj pilgrimage package trips to Mecca. The three men falsified documents and used the logos of ATOL licensed companies to legitimise their business and take advantage of people wishing to visit the holy Muslim site.
After multiple complaints, Leicester City Council Trading Standards launched an investigation into the company and found that paying customers who used the travel agent were subjected to poor quality, dirty and dangerous accommodation and transport.
Judge Timothy Spencer … Read more
Fraudsters posing as police officers and bank officials have stolen over £6.1 million over the past year. The scams directly target aged and vulnerable people, they call victims claiming that their bank account is at risk from fraudsters. These despicable and elaborate crimes have been dubbed ‘Courier Fraud’ and in most cases, they involve a victim being tricked into giving out their personal information or pin numbers, followed by a courier arriving at their home to collect their bank cards or cash.
A victim in her late 70’s was told that there was a suspected counterfeiting ring at her … Read more
The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) has upheld a symbolic £500,000 fine it handed to Facebook in July. The fine was issued to Facebook in response to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, concerning harvesting users’ data.
The ICO stated in its notice of penalty that data from at least one million British users was Unjustly processed and Facebook had failed to take appropriate technical and organisational measures against it. The fine is the maximum amount allowed under the Data Protection Act 1998.
In a statement a Facebook spokesperson said: “We are grateful that the ICO has acknowledged our full cooperation throughout … Read more