On WhatsApp, fraudsters target people under 35.

• People aged 21-30 are the most likely to fall for frauds on social media.
• Fraud in which consumers are misled into transmitting money rose 39% in 2021 to £583m.
• Impersonation, investment, and romance scams are “particularly harmful and frequent”.

People under 35 are the “primary target” for scammers using social media sites like WhatsApp.

A banking industry group said younger individuals were targeted by trust-based schemes.

UK Finance warns that energy bill and tax frauds are growing increasingly widespread as costs climb.

Criminals “play on people’s concerns” about rising prices, it claimed.

Younger age groups are generally the target, according to the banking industry body.

“People under 35 are more likely than older age groups to have been targeted in an imitation fraud,” it stated.

Barclays data also found that consumers aged 21-30 are the most likely to fall for frauds on social media, shopping sites, and dating applications.

Also Read

Walmart is being sued by the US FTC for fraudulent money transfer service

The FTC says Walmart did too little to prevent scam artists from...

UK Finance said scam artists use “weaknesses outside of the banking system” online and on social media.

The business group warned scams were changing.

During the epidemic, fake delivery texts seeking for money or NHS Covid-19 pass scams were common. Now, cost-of-living scams are replacing them.

Criminals posed as the NHS, banks, and government offices via phone calls, texts, emails, phoney websites, and social media.

Fraud in which consumers are misled into transmitting money and personal information rose 39% in 2021 to £583m, UK finance stated.

Authorised Push Payment fraud (APP) – when victims assume they’re paying a legitimate company – is on the rise and outpaced bank and credit card fraud losses, which declined by 7% in 2021.

Less than half (47%) of APP scam victims’ £246.8m losses were refunded.

Impersonation, investment, and “romantic” frauds are “particularly harmful and frequent,” according to a banking trade group.

Investment fraud and impersonation frauds soared 57% in 2020.

Investment scams, where a criminal convinces a victim to send money to a false fund or pay for a fake investment, made for the greatest amount of APP crime losses in 2021, growing by 60% to £166.2m.

Money lost through so-called romance scams, where the victim is convinced to pay a person they have met, frequently through social media or dating services, more than doubled in 2021 to £30.6m.

Payment service providers were only able to repay £12.6m (41%) of romance scam losses, usually because fraudsters had moved money by the time the crime was discovered.

In 2021, £1.3bn was lost through fraud, an 8% increase from the previous year.

Also Read

Due to chip shortages, desperate purchasers report more wire fraud

ERAI Inc said in 2021 there were 101 wire fraud cases reported...