A major bank says it has seen an increase in scams over the past three months, with fraudsters mostly relying on purchase, impersonation and investment tactics to steal money<\/p>\n
Financial scams against Brits are on the rise – and now major bank Barclays has revealed the three main ways fraudsters are targeting consumers.<\/p>\n
The bank says it has recorded a 17% rise in scams over the past three months, and that other figures show a 70% increase in attempted fraud over the period.<\/p>\n
Purchase Scams<\/strong><\/p>\n Purchase scams, where people buy goods online which don\u2019t exist or never arrive, accounted for over half (53%) of reported scams in Barclays data \u2013 with an average loss of \u00a3980.<\/p>\n Scammers create a perceived scarcity and therefore \u2018value\u2019 in what they are selling to motivate consumers to act quickly and not rely on their better judgment.<\/p>\n This might be advertising something as a \u2018one-time offer\u2019, a limited edition price or availability, or rushing us into buying something that \u2018has\u2019 to be bought now \u2013 even if you\u2019ve never seen the product in real life\u201d.<\/p>\n Barclays advice is to never be rushed and to read reviews of the site where you\u2019re shopping.<\/p>\n If you have any concerns, or if you\u2019re ever unsure, it\u2019s always important to take the time to check before proceeding with a purchase.<\/p>\n If it\u2019s a big-ticket item like a car, unless you\u2019re buying directly through a well-known brand, it\u2019s good practice to see it in person before spending any money.<\/p>\n Impersonation Scams<\/strong><\/p>\n Barclays research found that over two thirds of Brits (64%) would be more likely to comply with a request if we believed it was coming from an institution we knew such as our bank, the Police or even the NHS.<\/p>\n Scammers will harness that sense of authority to instil fear in their victims \u2013 perhaps suggesting their bank account has been compromised, they are overdue a payment or that they will be fined if they do not pay the full amount \u2013 psychologically, many of us will take these at face-value if they\u2019re coming from what we believe to be a reputable institution.<\/p>\n Investment Scams<\/strong><\/p>\n Investment scams often account for the highest average value type of scam, which is why they\u2019re such enticing options for fraudsters \u2013 with \u00a315,788 lost on average to these types of scams in the last quarter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A major bank says it has seen an increase in scams over the past three months, with fraudsters mostly relying on purchase, impersonation and investment tactics to steal money Financial scams against Brits are on the rise – and now major bank Barclays has revealed the three main ways fraudsters are targeting consumers. The bank […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,76,45,52,46,62,201,217],"tags":[8,86,93,9,10,87,92,88,218,72],"class_list":["post-406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-churchill-recovery","category-debt-collection","category-debt-collection-agencies","category-debt-collection-company","category-debt-recovery","category-debt-recovery-processes","category-debt-reovery","category-scams","tag-debt-collection","tag-debt-collection-agencies","tag-debt-collection-company","tag-debt-collection-procedures","tag-debt-collection-tips","tag-debt-recovery","tag-recover-payments","tag-recover-your-debts","tag-scams","tag-small-businesses"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/churchillrecoverysolutions.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/churchillrecoverysolutions.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/churchillrecoverysolutions.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/churchillrecoverysolutions.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/churchillrecoverysolutions.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/churchillrecoverysolutions.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":407,"href":"http:\/\/churchillrecoverysolutions.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406\/revisions\/407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/churchillrecoverysolutions.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/churchillrecoverysolutions.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/churchillrecoverysolutions.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}