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British elderly fleeced of UK£1.2 million daily - Action Fraud data
The UK government has been accused of being "asleep at the wheel in the fight against fraud" by the opposition Liberal Democrats party, which has secured data showing elderly victims (over-65s) are losing UK£1.2 million (US$1.45 million) daily.
Online Published Date:
01 March 2023
Appeared in issue:
April/May 2023 - 03 April 2023
Sweden's Ericsson on hook for US$206m fine after breaching US DPA terms
Swedish telecommunications major Ericsson has agreed to plead guilty to past accusations of paying bribes and falsifying books and records,after accepting it had breached a US deferred prosecution agreement (DPA). It will now have to pay an additionalcriminal penalty exceeding US$206 million.
Online Published Date:
07 March 2023
Appeared in issue:
April/May 2023 - 03 April 2023
Rio Tinto pays US$15m over agent activity in Guinea
Global mining group Rio Tinto plc agreed, on 6 March [2023], to pay US$15 million to settle charges, brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), that it had paid bribes to a consultant in Guinea.
Online Published Date:
08 March 2023
Appeared in issue:
April/May 2023 - 03 April 2023
Hidden agendas - how to counter bias in investigations
Everyone is a product of nature, nurture and experience, which will tend us to points of view and preconceptions that operate against objective, rational analysis of a problem or case. Keith Nuthall asks seasoned investigators how they resist the urge to jump to conclusions.
Online Published Date:
10 March 2023
Appeared in issue:
April/May 2023 - 03 April 2023
Hidden agendas - how to counter bias in investigations
Everyone is a product of nature, nurture and experience, which will tend us to points of view and preconceptions that operate against objective, rational analysis of a problem or case. Keith Nuthall asks seasoned investigators how they resist the urge to jump to conclusions.
Online Published Date:
10 March 2023
Appeared in issue:
June/July 2023 - 01 June 2023
Powers of persuasion - the rise of business email compromise and deepfake audio
Urgent contact from a senior manager - on email, by phone - insisting on immediate payment; it might be to a new account but otherwise all evidence points to a genuine instruction. 'All' evidence...? Keith Nuthalltakes a close look at communications crafted for lucrative deception.
Online Published Date:
14 March 2023
Appeared in issue:
April/May 2023 - 03 April 2023
War by other means - hacking on the eastern front
The electronic battlefield is just as hard fought over as physical territory in the Ukraine-Russia conflict with each seeking to (re)gain ground and cripple supply lines, infrastructure and communications. Dylan Carter, Ekaterina Mereminskaia and Keith Nuthall report on the cyber campaign.
Online Published Date:
15 March 2023
Appeared in issue:
April/May 2023 - 03 April 2023
SFO tagging fraud case against ex-G4S executives collapses
The UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has once again failed in a high-profile prosecution after acase against three former executives of a subsidiary of security corporation G4S over a tagging contract collapsed in London's Old Bailey on 10 March.
Online Published Date:
16 March 2023
Appeared in issue:
April/May 2023 - 03 April 2023
Mind games - psychology and victimhood
Why people fall prey to fraudsters deserves much more study, say academics. Paul Cochranelooks at how much we already know and some of the gaps still to be filled.
Online Published Date:
18 March 2023
Appeared in issue:
April/May 2023 - 03 April 2023
Understanding behavioural risk in fraud prevention
While fraudster profiling in itself may be beneficial, when combined with a behavioural risk assessment using a variety of research methods, investigators can narrow the field and focus their efforts on those most likely to be dishonest. Vera Cherepanova takes us through this more holistic approach.
Online Published Date:
18 March 2023
Appeared in issue:
April/May 2023 - 03 April 2023
New tech, new frauds - trends
The constant march of technological innovation and its exploitation by scammers creates an ever-evolving landscape for counter-fraud professionals to navigate. Jess Lempit and Marcus Fishburn of S-RM discuss 'merge scams' from blockchain upgrades and a boom in synthetic identity fraud.
Online Published Date:
18 March 2023
Appeared in issue:
April/May 2023 - 03 April 2023
When is 'open-source' a usable resource?
Fraud investigators and journalists now rely heavily on digitally-stored information, but its provenance and use can trigger legal grey areas. Eugene Dizenko of Vantage Intelligence discusses complexities of open-source intelligence.
Online Published Date:
18 March 2023
Appeared in issue:
April/May 2023 - 03 April 2023
ChatGPT - capable of identity fraud?
A step-change in artificial intelligence points to ever greater difficulty in distinguishing human from machine, real from fake, which raises the bar for combating criminals doubtless already exploring how to leverage the new tech. Simon Horswell of Onfido assesses the challenge.
Online Published Date:
23 March 2023
Appeared in issue:
April/May 2023 - 03 April 2023
UK telecoms regulator study shows 43 million online users have spotted fraud
Research commissioned by British telecoms regulator Ofcom has concluded that 87% of UK adults accessing the Internet - or 43 million people - have seen content they suspected to be a scam or fraud.
Online Published Date:
23 March 2023
Appeared in issue:
April/May 2023 - 03 April 2023
ChatGPT - next-level online risk and defence
With its advanced Large Language Model enabling rich, human-like responses, Open AI's ChatGPT chatbot has generated huge public interest, says Iain Swaine of BioCatch. People have already used it in highly inventive ways, some innocent, like stand-up comedy scripting, others not so - think AI-generated articles that pass university-level assessments and the spread of misinformation.
Online Published Date:
23 March 2023
Appeared in issue:
April/May 2023 - 03 April 2023
Cross-border currents - EPPO says VAT evasion accounts for 47% of EU funds fraud
The European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) has warned in its latest 2022 annual report that last year, cross-border VAT fraud accounted for 47% of the estimated €14.1 billion lost to frauds affecting European Union (EU) revenue and expenditure. That covers the 1,117 active EPPO investigations by the end of 2022, a year in which the office received and processed 3318 crime reports and opened 865 inquiries.
Online Published Date:
23 March 2023
Appeared in issue:
April/May 2023 - 03 April 2023
When litigating a fraud claim...
The costly and time-consuming process of litigation is always a last resort, with 90 per cent of civil claims reaching settlement before judgment. But, if approached from the outset with a clear strategy, a sound evidential basis and a clinical approach amid a fraught situation, each party can achieve the best of settlement outcomes. PwC's Carla Matthews walks us through the process.
Online Published Date:
25 March 2023
Appeared in issue:
June/July 2023 - 01 June 2023
EU honey probe reveals almost half of import samples contain impurities
Better analytical capabilities should be implemented to reduce the incidence of adulterated honey imported into the European Union (EU), industry observers claim, after a testing programme revealed almost half of the samples were fraudulently labelled.
Online Published Date:
29 March 2023
Appeared in issue:
June/July 2023 - 01 June 2023