More than seven million Britons fell victim to a scam in the past 12 months, research reveals. A further seven million adults said they know someone else who has been scammed in the past year, according to figures from Citizens Advice. A fifth of victims said falling for a scam caused them financial loss that ‘significantly impacted’ them.
Some 12 per cent said they went into debt or had to borrow money as a result of a scam, while a tenth had to use emergency savings due to the losses they faced. Artificial intelligence means scams are becoming increasingly difficult to detect, and scammers are able to target victims at scale . The number of different scams being perpetrated is also widening.
More than a quarter of scam victims, some 26 per cent, had been duped by online shopping scams, for example fake websites selling fake or non-existent goods. Citizens Advice said some of these victims spent hundreds of pounds on products such as clothing, mobile phones and furniture, but received items that were counterfeit. Ahead of Christmas and big shopping events like Black Friday and Boxing Day sales, Citizens Advice has warned that these scams are likely to become even more prevalent.
Dame Claire Moriarty, chief executive of Citizens Advice, said: ‘With living costs piling up, lots of us are looking at ways to shop savvy or boost savings. But opportunistic scammers are preying on hard times to trick people into handing over their cash, and their tactics are getting harder to spot.’ She added: ‘Anyone can be scammed, and the impact can be devastating – leaving people not only out of pocket, but in some cases unable to go about their daily lives. ‘It’s important to be alert – if you’re not sure about something, get advice. If you think someone might be trying to scam you, act straight away.’
Investment scams had the second most victims, with 18 per cent having fallen for them. Often, investment scams promise incredibly high returns over short periods, with scammers contacting victims and persuading them to invest in schemes that are worthless or don’t exist. A previous this is money investigation revealed hundreds of victims have fallen for ‘pump and dump’ scams, where fraudsters inflate the price of a listed stock before selling their holdings and pocketing the profit.
Other financial scams accounted for a further 18 per cent of cases, with scammers fleecing unsuspecting victims by posing as banks and offering fake loans. Some 17 per cent of victims said they handed financial information, such as their bank account details, to scammers, while 13 per cent admitted giving away security details like passwords and pin codes.
‘I thought I was doing my bank a favour’
One victim, 84-year-old Mary, whose name has been changed, paid some £40,000 in cash to scammers claiming to be from the fraud department of her bank. Mary was forced to use her life savings, pension funds and borrow money from a friend in order to pay off a £30,000 five-year loan she was manipulated into taking out. She said: ‘The scammers said my identity had been stolen by internal bank staff and the issue had to be dealt with in absolute secrecy. It was pressure right from the beginning. They don’t give you time to think.
‘They caught me at the most vulnerable I’d been for a long time. I thought I was doing my bank a favour by trying to unearth a mole in their staff. ‘There was always this promise I would get the money back, but the phone calls started easing off and of course the money never came.’ Mary was reimbursed just £7,000 by her bank. Some 16 per cent fell for scammers posing as friends or family in need of help – often claiming they need to pay a bill but have no access to their bank. These are typified by ‘Hi mum’ type scams that prey on parents’ concern for their children.
Some 14 per cent were scammed into taking out new mobile phone contracts or paying for new mobile phones, by scammers masquerading as their mobile network. John Herriman, chief executive at the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, said: ‘Too often, people feel guilt, embarrassment, or even shame, which stops them from reporting what has happened. ‘But the reality is that anyone can be caught out by a scam, and the true scale will never be known until more people come forward. ‘Every report helps enforcement teams identify patterns and protect others.’
