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Over the past 12 months, HMRC has requested the takedown of more than 20,000 corrupt websites. HM Revenue and Customs claims to have saved the public over £2.4 million, by shutting down websites and fraudsters who run them. Most people with a mobile phone have probably received a text purporting to be from HMRC which looked Genuine. The public have been made aware that these texts are fraudulent, by the government, who stated that they would never contact an individual by text, despite this being the way in which many people have been scammed.

Fraudsters alleging to be from HMRC … Read more

TSB loses 12,500 customers after database migration Collided its system for millions in April. The bank says it has been overwhelmed by incidents of fraud following the technical meltdown.

Thousands of customers have been receiving fraudulent messages and emails and the bank has been unable to properly assist customers due to the sheer volume of incidents.

So far TSB has received 95,613 complaints from customers who have been locked out of their online bank accounts and mobile Apps; some customers even gained access to accounts that did not belong to them.

The cause of the problem was an IT migration … Read more

Marriott Vacation Club owns and operates more than 70 vacation club properties throughout the United States, Caribbean, Europe and Asia. They have more than 400,000 Vacation Club owners. Owners are able to exchange into other locations through the Interval International Scheme, a timeshare exchange company with over 3,000 resorts. Uniquely, owners may also exchange their ownership week into Marriott Reward Points, which can be redeemed for stays at Marriott Hotel Properties, or for travel activities such as cruises and guided tours with affiliated partners.

It is the latter arm of the organisation that sparked a class action law suit against … Read more

The High Court order the compulsory liquidation of scoundrel pension companies for misusing millions of pounds of pension savings and scamming up to 520 pension savers.

 

Fast Pensions LTD and five other related companies have been closed down in the interest of the public by the High Court. The official receiver in the Public Interest Unit North division is now the liquidator in charge.

The Insolvency Service discovered that 520 pension savers were tricked into investing £21 Million in 15 pension schemes, which now appear to be bogus.

Between 2012 and 2013, 520 people were rascal into transferring their … Read more

A Terminally Ill woman and her husband have lost £53,000 in lifesavings to fraudsters who posed as Santander Bank staff.

 

Carol and John Williams, both in their 60’s, were planning to use their life savings to purchase a new property, after Carol Williams was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.

The scammers called Mr Williams on his mobile phone. Mr Williams was not alarmed by this, at first, as the number appeared on his phone screen as Santander Bank.

“They told me £15,000 was being taken out of my account by a Stephen King in Dundee, they said they needed Read more

Officials in Singapore have sentenced another timeshare fraudster, after he was involved in multiple cheating scams, duping naive timeshare owners into believing he could recover money from terminating their timeshare memberships. He has been sentenced to 3 and a half years imprisonment for his part in this huge scam.

A court heard that during the course of three years, over 50 victims reported to police that they were cheated by the defendant into paying money to recover some of the money they had already paid to their timeshare resorts. Victims paid nearly $100,000 to the fraudster and his co-conspirators.… Read more

As lockdown restrictions begin to ease, officials are warning the public to be extra alert when booking holidays, tickets and insurance as scammers set their sights on targeting new victims.

We are constantly being warned about the latest scams and being careful online, but the pandemic has seen the biggest increase in callous scammers looking to target people, even in the toughest of times. Since the first lockdown began over a year ago reports of scams have increased and now just as lockdown restrictions begin to ease, experts are warning we need to be even more vigilant when looking to … Read more

Scammers are getting increasingly sophisticated in their attempts to get their hands on your personal information. As fast as a scam gets stopped in it’s tracks a new one emerges. And just as we are seeing a record number of people working from home, so too are the scammers who are taking full advantage of the current pandemic and are ruthless even in these turbulent times.

These cyber criminals are thoroughly taking advantage of coronavirus worries and coming up with more ways to con money from innocent people.

Barclays Bank recently published new figures which showed that during the first … Read more

TV and radio presenter, Helen Skelton has spoken out and revealed she lost her life savings after fraudsters fooled her over the phone.

Speaking on ITV breakfast show with Lorraine Kelly, Helen Skelton told viewers to be cautious after the busy mom of three was distracted and believed fraudsters who claimed to be calling from her bank.

She explained how the fraudsters asked a few simple questions over the phone and they gained access to her bank account and stole her entire £70,000 life savings. She explained that whilst at home looking after her children, she was called out of … Read more

A fraudster has been jailed and ordered to pay back money he made in a property rental scam.

Following a series of reports to Action Fraud, Zhaker Darvesh has been jailed for conning victims into paying him thousands of pounds in deposits for rental properties. Darvesh advertised properties on Gumtree and collected deposits from victims, ranging anything from £9,500 to £3,200. Some of his victims were left in horror after arriving at properties on move-in dates only to find they had been scammed.

Darvesh would stop replying to messages, calls and emails from victims when he had received their … Read more