More than 45 per cent of confirmed financial frauds in the UK this year have been a result of identity theft, continuing the pattern seen in recent years, the national fraud database provider Cifas has found.
Richard Hurley, communications manager for Cifas, said although identity fraud existed before the “proliferation of online services”, since then it has become the “norm”.
He said since 2010 there have been more than 100,000 instances of victimisation each year. The figures for 2014 to date indicate that this year will repeat the pattern, with almost 90,000 victims identified by the organisations that use the Cifas national fraud database.
He said: “For the modern fraudster, knowing somebody’s personal or financial details is a licence to print money.”
This comes as HMRC announced it has been cracking down on tax evasion with a surge in the number of criminal prosecutions. According to its figures, the number of prosecutions has risen by 29 per cent from 617 in 2012/13 to 795 in 2013/14.
The HMRC has set a target of 1165 prosecutions in 2014/15, to help close the estimated £35bn tax gap in the UK.
Earlier this month, the Financial Ombudsman Service warned the public that some scammers were cold-calling households pretending to be from the official complaints watchdog.
Adviser view
Kevin White, UK head of financial planning from international wealth management firm deVere Group, said: “We have become aware of a group of scam artists contacting individuals and claiming to be from the bona fide deVere, which is a fully authorised, regulated and licenced firm.
“The tactics employed by these criminals typically involve using almost identical trading names, websites, logos and business cards. Some are even adopting the same names as our consultants when speaking to their potential victims.
“Imitation is certainly not the highest form of flattery in this regard.”
He said deVere had reported these instances to the authorities.
