Less checked online services bear brunt
Eight out of 10 cases took place online, and Cifas noted that the increase came from fraudsters targeting telecoms, online shopping and insurance – rather than bank account or credit card fraud as in previous years.
It said this "retargeting" by fraudsters can be seen as a shift towards exploiting more accessible products such as mobile phone contracts, online retail accounts, retail credit loans and short-term loans, all of which are less likely to be subject to the same strict checks as bank accounts and credit cards.
Separate
research has found that fraudsters operating on the dark web could buy a person's entire identity for just £820.
Thieves are gaining information by targeting individuals directly through phishing, malware attacks, social media, or other forms of social engineering, the report said.
According to the research, bank accounts bearing marks of money mule activity – where folk are recruited online to unwittingly transfer cash from the proceeds of crime – were up 11 per cent. There were 32,000 such cases in 2017.
Youngsters are most at risk – there was a 27 per cent growth in people aged 14-24 being recruited as mules.
More than a third of bank account takeover victims were over 60 years old. That was put down to the increasing popularity of online banking, and more fraudsters phoning victims claiming to be from the bank and asking to "verify" online passwords.
