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Greenwich Fraud & Cyber Crime Summary
November 2019
Executive Summary
Number of offences
178
Total loss
£1,090,654
Average per victim
£6,127
Top 5
The top 5 by volume (number of reports) type of fraud is as follows:
Fraud Type
Amount of Offences
Amount Lost
Online Shopping and Auctions
38
£18,533
Misc. (False Representation)
29
£49,717
Social Media and Email
14
£760
Other Advance Fee Frauds
13
£37,648
Lender Loan Fraud
10
£2,537
The top 5 by amount reported lost:
Fraud Type
Amount Lost
Amount of Offences
Mandate Fraud
£731,539
3
Dating Scam
£85,888
6
Misc. (False Representation)
£49,717
29
Other Advance Fee Frauds
£37,648
13
Push Payment
£36,956
8
Fraud Advice
Payment Fraud Payment fraud is a specific type of fraud which targets businesses with the intention of getting them to transfer money to a bank account operated by the criminal. There are two main types of payment fraud, CEO fraud and Mandate Fraud. Both are usually targeted at staff within a company’s accounts department and use spoofed sender email addresses (sometimes called Business Email Compromise) CEO fraud involves an email that claims to be from a senior member of staff within a company such as a CEO (Chief Executive Officer). The email will ask the receiver to make a payment or transfer funds for an ongoing or new business transaction. Often the payment request is marked as urgent and pressure is applied to the receiver to make the payment as soon as possible. Mandate fraud involves an email which appears to come from a known supplier. The email will request that future payments for products or services are made to a new bank account and give a reason for the account change. In each instance, the new account will be under the control of the criminal and any funds paid in to it will be lost. How to protect yourself
• If an email is received requesting a change of bank details on an account or a one off payment, verify this by making direct contact with the organisation or person requesting the change. Ideally, phone them on a number you already have, failing that, double check the email used. Do not use any contact details from the suspicious email. Don’t be pressurised by any email, or follow up phone call, as this may be the criminal. Always double check.
• However, some criminals are getting wise to this, and so will prep a victim in advance by contacting them a few days or weeks earlier to change any stored phone numbers or emails to their own. So, it’s a good idea to double check any contact when change of details occur. Make sure you double check via the original contact details.
REMEMBER – Don’t change bank details without double checking. CAUTION – Sometimes, criminals will call in advance to fraudulently change contact numbers. Check when these change too. THINK - Why does this payment have to be made?
Romance and Dating Fraud
Dating online is now one of the most popular ways for new couples to meet, with millions of people finding new relationships, romance and love this way. Unfortunately, amongst the genuine profiles are fake profiles set up by fraudsters. They are after your money, not your love. They are masters of manipulation, playing on your good nature and emotions to ultimately steal your money.
Criminals will build a relationship with online members, quickly asking to move communication off the dating website. This is so they can continue their contact with you, even if their profile is later identified by the site as fraudulent and subsequently deleted.
Fraudsters are often very flattering, appearing really interested in you within a short space of time. However, they will use a range of excuses as to why they can’t meet in person, such as they are stuck overseas, have a family emergency or have an issue with their business. They then start asking for money to help with their problems, assuring you they will pay it back as soon as they can. The fraudster may claim to be desperate to meet you as soon as this obstacle is overcome. This is all a scam and their true intention is to take as much money from you as they can.