Customers should get in touch immediately with the bank if they feel they have been scammed
Scams targeting businesses increased by nearly a third: Barclays. Source: shutterstock.com
Barclays has reported that scams targeting businesses increased by 31% in January and February when compared with the same period last year.
Impersonation scams were the most commonly used tactic by criminals to target businesses in 2020 accounting for 44%. These figures more than doubled in the second half of the year when compared with the first half (62%).
Impersonation scams are referred t those when fraudsters pretend to be organizations or authorities in the hope that they’ll trick their victims into sharing personal or banking information. Or to even transfer money out of their account.
The bank is issuing a scam warning to all businesses, but particularly those in the property and construction sector. That’s because the data reveals that SMEs in this sector made up 24% of all business scams last year. On average, each scam costs property and construction SMEs a staggering £4,110.
We’ve reported that 1 in 5 Americans changed their banks amid pandemic.
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