Information Retrieval: Fake Fraud Prevention Agents in the UK
- UK National Fraud Authority reporting service Action Fraud explains that supposed fraud prevention agents today pretend to belong to the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and call people to collect their personal information and ask them to withdraw large amounts of cash. The Serious Fraud Office then warns the general public that it does not have any so-called “fraud squad officer” and never requires this kind of information. It also explains that fraudsters are likely to contact their victims by phone, post mail, e-mail or even by fax.
- ID usurpation is increasingly used to retrieve data in the UK. Action Fraud also notes that fake Visa and MasterCard security agents use the same scam to get hold of the cardholders’ banking information and further on purchase items online with this data.
- According to Experian, in The Insight Report, Victims of Fraud Survey – March 2010, fraud attempts targeting banking service providers increased 11% in 2010.
- This evolution confirms that in place risk management strategies must now be rethought and new means to validate the transactions and/or authenticate the cardholders be integrated. These cardholders should also be reminded of a few security rules to help them detect and avoid these kinds of scams. Several strong authentication solutions are being developed today and their implementation would make it possible to avoid being affected by some threats (among these, the fraud attempts described by Action Fraud). If the cardholders were accustomed to using identification procedures, they would not fall prey to these ploys so easily.