70% of scam victims do not have their money returned
30/10/2015
Up to 70% of people who lose money in financial scams do not have their money returned, according to figures from the RBS Group.
The figures show that in a nine month period during 2015, 5,000 bank customers fell victim to financial scams, at a total cost of more than £25 million. The average cost of falling for a scam has also increased by 40% since 2014, to more than £13,000.
Customers of the RBS group, which includes Natwest, are most frequently caught out by “vishing”, or “verbal phishing” scams. This is where people are tricked into giving their account details over a telephone call.
Terry Lawson, who is head of fraud at RBS, believes the way fraudsters trick individuals is becoming more sophisticated, and that the threat of scams is a growing problem. He said:
"We would never contact a customer asking them to transfer money. If a customer of any bank is contacted by someone asking them to do this they should simply end the conversation and report the matter to the police."
Conservative MP Mark Garnier, a member of the Commons Treasury Select Committee, said:
"It is interesting that overall crime is going down, but we still clearly don't know what is happening with crime online."
"There is obviously a huge crime wave that isn't being reported, either people aren't aware, or are embarrassed to report it."
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