Posts

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Romance Fraud leaves woman penniless

Michelle Szombara has now been declared bankrupt after meeting a man on a dating website. Alan Clarkson stole more than £60,000 from Ms Szombara and her parents. Clarkson turned up at her house one day with a few items of clothing and did not leave for four years. He then started to claim he was penniless, in debt and could not access his bank accounts.

To help legitimise his con, Clarkson created fake emails from financial organisations and produced fake paperwork to fool her into believing he had money in another bank account and could pay her back.

Ms Szombara … Read more

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Scammer Steals $10,000 From Grandfather

A grandfather from Australia has been scammed out of $10,000 by a refined fraudster who knew all of his personal details.

The 77 year old retired grandfather, from Australia, was called on his landline by scammers claiming to be from his broadband provider. They told him he was due a payment of $300 in compensation for his service not working properly. The caller then proceeded to pass his call onto a female agent who claimed to work for the network and would process his $300 payment.

The scammer knew all of his personal details and was able to access his … Read more

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Warning Over Springtime Scammers

Fraudsters are targeting elderly, vulnerable and young people who may have less experience of the tax system. During April and May, fraudsters target taxpayers with refund scams, by Feigning to be from HMRC, either by email or text. This coincides with genuine tax rebates at this time of year, made by HMRC and makes the con seem more legitimate as people may be expecting to hear from the tax service.

They ask recipients to provide bank details through a fake government website which harvests private information and is used to steal money from peoples bank accounts. To lure them in … Read more

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Man protests mis-sold loans, starts hunger strike outside bank headquarters

A businessman has begun a hunger strike opposite the headquarters of Clydesdale Bank to protest about the way he claims it has treated him.

John Guidi, 63 from Glasgow, is sleeping in a tent in the city centre outside of the Clydesdale headquarters. Mr Guidi blames the bank for removing funding from his once successful property business and then selling his loans to another company.

Mr Guidi has been a loyal customer of Clydesdale bank for over twelve years and had built up a portfolio of over 150 rental properties. He says the bank withdrew his funding in 2012 and … Read more

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Instagram and Snapchat users targeted in extortion scam

Victims are being tricked into revealing Two Factor Authentication (2FA) codes and extorted for money with the threat of having their personal photos shared publicly if they don’t pay up.

Action Fraud has received multiple reports about Snapchat and Instagram accounts being endangered as a result of users being tricked into handing over 2FA codes to fraudsters. The victims are then extorted for money with the threat of having their personal photos shared publicly.

Action Fraud are telling users to not respond to messages that ask for your login details or two-factor authentication (2FA) codes. These can be used to … Read more

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Men sentenced for selling customer data

An AXA insurance employee has been convicted of stealing customer data and selling it to a claims management company.

Shane Jerman was taking photographs of customer data and sending them via WhatsApp to his co-defendant Stuart McGill. Investigators found that Jerman was sending McGill roughly 100 lines of data to him each week. In Return, McGill was sending payments of up to £650 to Jerman.

According to The City Of London Police’s Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED), which worked closely with AXA during the investigation, Jerman and McGill made approximately £18,250 between them.

IFED investigated McGill’s accounts and found payments… Read more

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Another warning over TV Licensing Scam

Action Fraud are again issuing fresh warnings over an ongoing TV Licensing phishing scam. The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau are continuing to receive high numbers of complaints through their reporting service.

Fraudsters are sending members of the public fake TV Licensing emails, which are designed to steal personal and financial information. Action Fraud has received over 900 crime reports since April 2018,and the losses to victims totals more than £830,000.

Director of Action Fraud, Pauline Smith said: “We are continuing to see reports of fraudsters using fake TV Licensing emails to hook victims in and trick them into parting … Read more

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Warning Over Selling Your Old Computer

Action Fraud are warning people to be careful when looking to make some extra cash selling their old computers.

According to new research from a leading international data security company, found that 42% of used hard drives sold through Ebay still contained sensitive data, which could be compromising. The research found that 15% contained personally identifiable information, even when sellers had stated they had properly wiped the hard drives of all personal and sensitive data.

The study analysed 159 computer drives purchased in the UK, UK, Germany and Finland. The findings highlighted a major concern that whilst sellers recognise … Read more

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2 Years for Illegal investment scheme

In a case bought by the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”), Virdee was sentenced to 2 years in prison and ordered to carry out 300 hours unpaid community work. Virdee pleaded guilty to 4 charges relating to Deceptive consumers, fraud and, the illegal operation of an unauthorised investment scheme, which raked in over half a million pounds.

Virdee ran a company named Dynamic UK Trades Ltd and, between October 2015 and November 2017, he operated a deposit taking scheme without the required authorisation of the FCA. The FCA say he targeted family members and associates; in one instance he convinced … Read more

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Pension Pushers Sent 2 million spam emails

Grove Pensions Solutions, based in Kent, hired a third party marketing firm to distribute over 2 million emails over a twelve month period, promoting its services. An investigation led by the Information Commissioners Office found that Grove Pension Solutions Ltd was responsible for the two million emails, which were sent between 31 October 2016 and 31 October 2017.

The ICO found that Grove Pensions Solutions had instructed a marketing company and used third party email providers to carry out hosted marketing campaigns, that advertised the company’s services. The company had sought specialist advice from a data protection consultancy as well … Read more

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