LONDON -
Sept. 27, 2021 -
PRLog -- UK Finance, the trade body for the banks and finance industry, reported that criminals during the first half of 2021 stole £129.4 million from us through 'impersonation fraud' - i.e. the criminals pretend to be trusted organisations, and the 'British' inability to say "NO" when asked for personal details helps them. www.ukfinance.org.uk/
press/press-
releases/public-
warned-surge-
impersonation-
scams-cases-
more-double
Has this come from the 'marketing team' or 'consumer team'? Probably, as the article seems to exclude any coordinated or even cross-industry ACTION PLAN though. This is a problem that has 'doubled to £129.4 million' in one year: and at that level, it must demand a regulator-led cross-industry plan. Will the losses double (or more) again across the remainder of 2021. With no clear action plan, should we suspect the numbers as fantasy or just unengaged thinking?
Two issues emerge. a) The fraud level is unacceptable;
yet between the sending and receiving banks, they know the customers and accounts - OR should known them if they followed the EU/UK AML laws. b) This 'consumer research' labels UK consumers as 'soft targets' that need to be protected. Yet we read elsewhere that banks need to reimburse more than the current <50% of refunded consumers for these frauds, even though here we read that is the customers that are at fault (not the banks).
Of particular concern is that this was a small-scale consumer survey without details of the survey representation:
but the figures imply an accuracy of 1:10,000 (0.01%) which is ridiculous from a survey. A problem that really costs £129.4m deserves full disclosure and challenge of the details. Equally, why waste money upon a limited survey when the ACTION FRAUD initiatives have full details of all (?) reported frauds? ACTION FRAUD must be given more 'teeth' to drive real action. Or has it become just a PR function too, to allow us to 'feel-good'. We, the banks must create (by design) the weapons and funding to start the war against these fraudsters; rather than 'patronising our customers' with reports on how it is them that are causing these losses. It is very much a problem for the banks and others.
Read full article at
https://www.riskskill.com/post/uk-finance-reports-app-fra...Kevin Smith and Bill Trueman are directors at Riskskill, and are payments and risk specialist, with over 25 years of experience. For more information about Riskskill visit website at www.riskskill.com
For further information, please contact: Bill Trueman or Kevin Smith at enquiries@riskskill.com
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