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1. ncpqsw.com, January 2016
IN YOUR INTEREST
THE INVESTOR
|
09
SECURITY
ESTIMATED FIGURE
MINIMUM
(IF 10% REPORTED)
172,640
£221
DOORSTEP SCAM VICTIMS
EXPENDITURE ON
DOORSTEP CRIME
m
Reporting levels of doorstep crime are
believed to be between 1% and 10%
DOORSTEP SCAMS IN
ENGLAND (2014-2015)
1
ESTIMATED FIGURE
MAXIMUM
(IF 1% REPORTED)
1,726,400
£22.1
DOORSTEP SCAM VICTIMS
EXPENDITURE ON
DOORSTEP CRIME
bn
REPORTED
17,264
DOORSTEP SCAM VICTIMS
ESTIMATED EXPENDITURE
ON DOORSTEP CRIME
£22.1
m
W
hen Gloria
Hunniford
discovered that
£120,000 had
disappeared from
her bank account she was outraged; not
only because of the nancial loss – which
her bank reimbursed – but also because,
as a presenter of the BBC’s
Rip O Britain
,
she makes a living from advising people
how to avoid nancial scams.
The fraud was brazen – a woman
claiming to be Hunniford, and two
others masquerading as her
daughter and grandson, visited the
bank and asked for the supposed
grandson to be added as a signatory; as
Hunniford is well-known, nding details of
her full name and date of birth were
relatively simple. But thousands of other
ordinary people fall victim to fraud every
year and many don’t get their money back.
Fraudulent activity is increasing. Bank,
cheque and credit card fraud reached
£755 million in 2015, according to
Financial FraudAction UK, up more than
a quarter on the year before
1
, while the
Financial ConductAuthority (FCA)
estimates that £1.2 billion is lost annually
through investment fraud
2
.Victims are
not just the naïve and greedy; we are all
vulnerable. CitizensAdvice estimates that
one person in 10 has fallen victim to
a scam
3
.Among the elderly, the problem
By Heather Connon
is even worse;Age UK’s research
4
indicates that more than half of the
over-65s have been targeted by fraudsters,
and while only one in 12 of those
responded to the scam, 70% of those who
did so lost money.
Scams are becoming increasingly
sophisticated.The illiterate email
purporting to be from a Nigerian bank has
been superseded by viruses which can
take over your computer; plausible phone
calls warning that your computer has
been hacked; and telephone scammers
who urge you to call your bank but stay
on the line as you make the call.With
every innovation comes a new list of
scams: pension freedoms sinceApril
Criminals are using sophisticated
techniques to successfully empty
pension pots and bank accounts