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Cobra AI system launched by North East financial investigators

FINANCIAL investigators from the North East say they are on the tracks of global scammers using game-changing artificial intelligence to help recover the criminals’ billions.

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Pension scams – the cruelest crime

Ruthless fraudsters may have plundered as much as £14.6 billion from the nations pension savings, new figures reveal.

The shocking statistics from the pension industry show the scale of the crime has been grossly underestimated.

Official police fraud report figures had previously shown that just £31 million had been lost due to pension scammers since 2017. Experts have always believed the true cost to be much higher.

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Beware the Covid scammers

Investment scams have nearly quadrupled during lockdown as scammers use evermore sophisticated methods to dupe ordinary savers into parting with their cash.

Almost £10m was lost in frauds last month, up from about £4m in July, according to the Investment Association. The total number of reported scams jumped from 300 to 1,175 over the same period.

Scammers are taking advantage of more people working from home where online security may be less robust than in their workplace. With Christmas shopping well underway and lockdown forcing more of us to buy online, there is a rich seam for the criminal to exploit.

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Guard against international scammers

INVESTORS are being warned to be on their guard against international scammers seeking to cash in on the coronavirus crisis.

A tide of fraudsters is expected to sweep in as Covid-19 paralyses traditional markets and high net worth investors become desperate to find new ways to make their money work.

Financial security experts at UK-based IYE Associates International (www.iyeglobal.com) warn that there is more than losing money at stake, a view echoed by official crime-fighters.

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Another success for IYE Recovery

A company owning a Merchant Bank in the City of London decided to dishonour our client’s contract and refused to pay a substantial bill for services rendered. Our client tried to secure payment, but the offending company simply refused to pay and raised a dispute which they hoped they could hide behind to avoid paying a legal debt.

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10 Statements or Comments that have been used in $ Multi Million Scams

A FREE CHECKLIST OF SOME TRIED AND TESTED ‘SCAM INDICATORS’ TO KEEP YOU SAFE.

Here are ten of the most common statements or excuses which come up when scammers are trying to engage with investors. If any sound familiar or similar to statements made by people you are dealing with please be extremely cautious. There are many more, and whilst we can be amused at the naivety of these approaches, each is a genuine example and every single one represents multiple victims who have been defrauded by scammers, often with the loss of significant sums.

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The ‘Arrest Warrant Scam’​

Fraudsters are ‘cloning’ the HMRC phone number in what is being termed as the ‘arrest warrant scam’

The number appears to be a genuine HMRC call but is actually a scam to persuade people to transfer cash.

The official income tax helpline for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is being used to threaten victims by claiming warrants have been issued for their arrest because of unpaid taxes.

People who use the web to check the number – usually 0300 200 3300 – are finding the top Google result confirms it belongs to HMRC.

Some phones will automatically display the number as “HM Revenue & Customs”.

Despite the apparently legitimate number, the call is actually from fraudsters.

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Truffle Farms and Pension Scams

David Austin, Susan Dalton, Alan Barratt and Julian Hanson of Friendly Pensions, were identified as the masterminds behind a £13.7 million pension scam and have now been banned from being trustees of pension schemes.

Funds raised were used to line the pockets of the trustees, with more than £10.3 million shunted into firms owned or controlled by ringleader David Austin, a former bankrupt.

The scam cheated 245 victims out of their pension savings after they were persuaded to transfer funds into one of 11 fraudulent schemes, which included a bogus Somerset truffle farm.

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Image Rights – Further Probes

Following consultation with Spanish tax authorities into recent high profile ‘image rights’ tax avoidance schemes. The UK’s HM Revenues & Customs (HMRC) is now investigating almost 200 footballers as part of its crackdown on tax avoidance in the sport.

According to a report in the Daily Mail, the number of players under investigation has risen from 181 in April to 198 today, with 44 Premiership and Football League clubs said to be involved. The number of Agents (Intermediaries) being probed has also increased from 21 to 29.

The investigation covers a range of areas from image rights loopholes, to the use of tax avoidance schemes.

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£500 million and rising

New figures reveal the true extent of the nation’s battle with fraud

The latest numbers show scammers stole £500m from UK bank accounts in the first six months of 2018 alone! More than £145m of that was made by the victim after being tricked into authorising a payment to the fraudster, known as “push-payments” according to data from UK Finance, the banking and finance trade body.

The rest, £358m was stolen in unauthorised theft – taken by a third party without the owner’s knowledge or permission. Often these are purchase scams when the victim pays for a product or service which never arrives. In these cases, victims typically receive a full refund.

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