Front-line advisors have identified the four most prolific fraud trends used by unscrupulous scammers to target banking customers.
With fraud levels on the rise, banks are increasingly turning to business process outsourcers (BPOs) with specialist anti-fraud expertise.
Working day in day out in the fight against fraud, advisors at Firstsource’s Anti-Fraud Centre of Excellence in Middlesbrough attempt to stay one-step ahead of the scammers by monitoring persistent and emerging fraud trends.
Here are the four main trends that Firstsource fraud advisors are noticing as they handle a steady flow of cases on behalf of three of the UK’s biggest banks…
- Impersonation scams
Impersonation fraud is when scammers pose as a reputable business, friend, or family member in order to steal money or personal information.
This type of scam is often referred to as authorised push payment (APP) or bank transfer fraud – this is because the victim knowingly transfers the funds as they have been tricked into believing they are making a genuine payment.
A good example of impersonation fraud, which has been particularly widespread across the UK, is the WhatsApp scam where a message is sent from a strange number supposedly from a relative of the recipient claiming that their phone is broken and requesting that they transfer them money.
Georgia, an experienced call advisor who supports customers of one of the UK’s biggest banks, explains: “Unfortunately a lot of people fall for this scam. I had an elderly customer who said ‘I’m making this payment because my son’s phone’s broken’ and I knew straight away that it was the WhatsApp scam.
“So I asked if she could ring her son’s old number from a different phone while keeping me on the line. She said ‘well that won’t work because it’s broken’. I told her that I know that’s what it says in the message but I don’t think that’s actually true. She was reluctant but I managed to persuade her.
“It was ringing and ringing and when they finally picked up she said ‘I’ve got the bank on the phone and they said that I can’t transfer this money’. Her son then said ‘what money?’ When she had finished the call with her son she said to me ‘I’m so thankful, you’ve just saved me thousands of pounds’.
“The key is to be persistent, even if the customer doesn’t think they’re being targeted by fraudsters, as a call advisor you have to trust your reading of the situation.”
- Investment fraud
Investment scams can often be more difficult to detect than other types of fraud. This is because the nature of investments means that it is not always immediately apparent that fraud is taking place.
The emergence of cryptocurrency as a mainstream investment opportunity has caught the attention of fraudsters who have devised methods of conning consumers out of tens or even hundreds of thousands of pounds.
A common crypto investment scam involves a consumer being persuaded to purchase a cryptocurrency through a legitimate intermediary and sending money to what they believe is a genuine investment platform, but which is in reality operated by scammers.
According to figures by the Financial Ombudsman Service, investment scams saw the biggest increase as a proportion of ‘authorised’ scam complaints in the first quarter of 2022/2023. It is an ongoing trend that has been identified by Firstsource fraud advisors.
Stacey, who works on the ‘faster payments’ team at the Firstsource Anti-Fraud Centre of Excellence, explains: “It can take some time for investments to be realised so you might not know for six or seven months that you’ve been scammed.
“For us as fraud advisors, the best way to keep up with the fraudsters on more complex scams is to ensure we’re reading information, whether that’s in the news or elsewhere, and the other really important aspect is to ensure we’re constantly communicating with our team via the managers who can then cascade out the learnings.”
- Topical and opportunistic fraud
Fraudsters are nothing if not enterprising. This is evidenced by the fact that fraud is constantly evolving and is woven into our everyday life.
Topical events that have been widely reported by the media are often hijacked by scammers. A number of fake websites offering ‘clearance sales’ were set up following the high-profile closure of UK retailer Wilko in 2023, which led to some consumers losing hundreds of pounds.
Jess, a Firstsource team leader who specialises in credit card fraud, says: “Fraud is always changing. For example, when Wilko went into administration, there was a massive fraud trend where people thought they were buying things from Wilko’s closing down sale but it was fraud.
“Similar types of fraud are common when Black Friday comes around and also at Christmas time with scam text messages claiming to be from the Royal Mail asking for delivery payments.
“So as much as we can identify these trends, communicate them to the wider teams to watch out for them, and communicate them to our banking partners to watch out for them, it’s never ending and constantly evolving.
- Building scams
Rogue traders and cowboy builders are by no-means a new phenomenon; however, such scams continue to account for a significant proportion of the fraud calls handled by Firstsource’s Middlesbrough-based team.
There are a number of warning signs to look out for in terms of building scams. These include:
- The tradesperson refuses to provide a written quote
- They ask for cash up front
- They pressure the householder into an urgent decision
- They don’t have a website or any online presence
Stacey explains: “The building scams we’ve seen coming through have often been because there’s not been enough probing or questioning. People are often paying up front and the so-called builders are not going on to continue or finish the job.”
These cowboy builders often target elderly or vulnerable people who they attempt to coerce into agreeing to work that is either not needed, hugely overpriced, or simply never completed.
Fortunately, Firstsource fraud advisors are trained on how to assist and protect banking customers who are at risk of falling victim to rogue traders.
Georgia says: “There have been quite a few times where we have done welfare calls for the customer because we’re really concerned about them. One of the advisors recently had an elderly customer where the fraudster was in the house with her. He was pretending to be a builder and was saying he needed a bank transfer to do some work.
“She was upstairs and had left the fraudster downstairs wandering around the house on his own. On the welfare call we stopped the payment and called the police. As soon as the customer went downstairs and told the fraudster that the police were coming he did a runner.”
To learn more about Firstsource’s anti-fraud banking solutions, click here.
Contact us for more Information
