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Consumers were warned to stay after searching for so-called cloning scams during exercises in the second half of 2024.
Criminals who carry out scams create nearly the same duplication of legal companies’ websites, emails or fake WhatsApp groups to convince consumers to send them payments.
A report from the Investment Association found that this fraud is the “highest list of threats” facing consumers who want to invest. The study was published to mark “five” fraud prevention week.
The report said that in the second half of 2024, there were 478 reports on imitation of investment management companies. Less than a quarter of success is successful.
Adrian Hood, an expert on regulatory and financial crimes at the association, said criminals will use “various means” to deceive people into separating from their money. They can pretend to be real investment managers, steal card details or fraudulently log into a person’s account.
IA advises consumers to “stay alert” and double check the sender’s email address and URL to differ from legitimate companies.
Hood said the risks are getting bigger as fraudsters use new artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.
“The growth of AI could see increasingly complex scams where criminals can better imitate legitimate companies,” he said.
Although the total number of other scams was found to have decreased, there were 1,014 cloning scams for IA member companies in 2024, an increase of 57% from the previous year.
However, the association said efforts to deal with fraud were often successful, with fraud losses from its member clients falling by 29 per cent to £5.4 million, between the first half of 2024.
I cheated about £1.7 million from my member’s clients.
Account acquisitions decreased, with fraudsters controlling an account to cash in on investments from 142 to 132, between two halves of the year. During the same period, reports of card fraud have declined, with criminals using stolen cards from 36 to 17 to open investment accounts.
British Finance said criminals have done their best to make it justified, and AI tools can make it easier for them to do so.
“People can check Register of Financial Conduct Authority For a list of regulated companies, use only the contact information listed on the registration book to confirm that you are dealing with a real company before being separated from your money or information. ”
It is advised that their fraudulent customers contact their investment platform or provider immediately and report the incident to the Operational Fraud Centre of the British Police Force.
