A lot of impersonation scam victims are convinced to make a payment to the criminals thinking they’re from trusted organizations
UK faced sharp impersonation scam increase amid lockdown. Source: unsplash.com
According to UK Finance, there were nearly 15,000 impersonation scam cases reported between January and June 2020. That’s an increase of 84% compared to the same period last year.
The research also found that 8,220 cases involved criminals impersonating the police or a bank, a year-on-year rise of 94%.
Another 6,730 cases involved fraudsters imitating utility companies, communications service providers, or government departments. That was a 74% increase.
From January to June 2020, the UK lost £58 million to impersonation scams, up to 3% on the previous year. This was split between £36.7 million lost to bank and police impersonation scams and £21.2 million lost to scams impersonating other organizations.
We’ve reported that HM Revenue & Customs has received 10,428 scam emails, SMS messages, social media posts, and phone calls exploiting its name amid the pandemic
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