Fraud

Consumers are being warned of fraudsters impersonating the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), as the regulator revealed it has received almost 5,000 fake FCA scam reports in the first half of 2025.

A man who defrauded businesses out of hundreds of thousands of pounds has been sentenced to five years in prison following a prosecution by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS). Barry Mackland was found guilty by a jury at the High Court in Edinburgh of defrauding three agricultura

Fraud now accounts for an estimated 41% of all crime against individuals in England and Wales, according to the National Crime Agency, and in response, a multi-agency initiative is now being rolled out to take greater action to protect the public, following a successful pilot programme led by C

A fraudster who earned more than £500,000 by deceiving luxury hotels and stores into buying "unique" Scottish-grown tea that was actually imported, has been imprisoned for three and a half years following a prosecution by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS).

A former office worker jailed for defrauding two construction companies has been ordered to pay back more than £80,000 under Proceeds of Crime laws. Stephanni Houston, 41, of Ayr, was sentenced to 38 months in prison in November 2023 for embezzling over £516,000 from two construction com

New figures show the total reported amount lost to fraud reached £2.3bn in 2024, according to a freedom of information request by RSM UK to Action Fraud. Total reported fraud losses increased 6% to £2,255,491,192 in 2024, from £2,115,281,935 the previous year as fraudsters become i

The Cyber and Fraud Hub has helped hundreds of individuals protect themselves from financial loss since launching last July. The hub has assisted 228 people through its helpline and fraud triage service, been involved in £8 million worth of fraud investigations and recovered or prevented &poun

Edinburgh's Smart Data Foundry has renewed its long-standing collaboration between its synthetic data engine, Aizle, and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The new collaborative agreement, which will run until September 2025, will expand the FCA’s data capabilities, with access to more syn

All Scottish councils must learn from the weaknesses that allowed an Aberdeen City Council employee’s £1.1 million fraud go undetected over 17 years, the Accounts Commission has urged. Between 2006 and 2023, the employee transferred 655 council tax refund payments totalling £1.109m

Financial firms, telecommunications and tech leaders have launched a collaborative programme in International Fraud Awareness Week to tackle financial crime across the UK.

UK Finance has reported that £571.7 million was stolen through payment fraud in the first half of 2024, a 1.5% decrease from the same period in 2023. While authorised push payment (APP) fraud losses decreased by 11%, unauthorised fraud losses increased by 5%.

New data from Santander UK has revealed a worrying increase in romance scams, with losses totalling over £3.8 million in the last six months – a 27% rise.

From 7 October 2024, victims of authorised push payment (APP) scams will be able to claim a maximum reimbursement of £85,000 for losses incurred through Faster Payments and CHAPS, the Bank of England's Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has confirmed. This decision by the PSR board reduces t

The UK is losing billions of pounds a year in revenue due to tax evasion among small businesses, which can easily exploit weaknesses in government systems, according to a new National Audit Office (NAO) report on tax evasion in retail. As well as raising public funds, reducing tax evasion encourages

The UK's Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) is proposing to lower the maximum amount banks must refund victims of authorised push payment (APP) fraud from £415,000 to £85,000. The regulator is currently consulting on this change, having reviewed data on high-value APP scams, which