Toys, fake Ugg Boots, GHD hair straighteners, iPhones and iPads are among tens of thousands of counterfeit items that have been seized by customs officers in recent months. UKBA said buyers can be left with products that are inferior to genuine ones and often dangerous.

Full Story >> The Guardian

 The true cost of fraud to the NHS is more than £3bn a year, putting patients' lives at risk, according to a new report. The staggering figure – enough to build dozens of new hospitals – is the work of a "dishonest minority" of doctors, staff, patients and contractors, the report, to be published tomorrow, says.

Full Story >> The Independant

Public accounts committee says methods of protecting consumers fail to keep pace with fraudsters

Consumers are being "ripped off" to the tune of £7bn a year by sellers of defective goods, dodgy doorstep traders and online fraudsters because the systems in place to stop them are underfunded, incoherent and fragmented, a government committee has warned.

Full Story >> The Guardian

Small businesses which fell victim to criminal fraud are now being pursued for their debts by major banks and financial institutions, 5 Live Investigates has discovered.

Victims of leasing scams have been duped into taking out costly agreements which the leasing divisions of big banks and other financial institutions are insisting they honour.

Full Story >> BBC News

Full Story >> The MailOnline

Full Story >> The MailOnline

Fraudsters are increasingly targeting cash machines and home phones to strip your bank account of money.

Latest figures from the UK Cards Association reveal that fraud on lost or stolen cards totalled £25.7million in the first half of this year, a 20 per cent increase on last year, as conmen are put off by security measures for online bank accounts.

Full Story >> This is Money.co.uk

The amount of money lost through card fraud and online banking fraud in the UK has fallen again as part of a longer-term downward trend, figures reveal, but at the same time cheque fraud and phone banking fraud losses have soared.

Full Story >> The Guardian

Number of unreported cases likely to be far higher as individual losses range from £50 to £240,000.  More than 200,000 people in Britain may have been conned by fraudsters posing as would-be romantic partners on internet dating sites, according to the first study examining the potential scale of the problem.

Anti-fraud groups have warned for some time about scams, in which criminals create a false identity - often an army officer on active service, explaining an inability to meet in person - and develop a close online intimacy with a victim, who is then asked for cash to help their presumed suitor out of a crisis.

Full Story >> The Guardian

Stores are calling in the police to crack down on shoppers who are misusing money-off vouchers.
The big supermarkets and product manufacturers are deluging consumers with vouchers and coupons to tempt them to spend.
But this has led to a boom in voucher fraud thanks to computer technology which allows coupons to be copied and printed. Genuine coupons that should be used only once are also being used again and again.

Full Story >> The MailOnline

Your friend emails you from holiday saying he's been mugged and could you urgently wire him cash? But it's a scam - hackers are controlling his Gmail.

Here at Guardian Money we've seen pretty much every scam email going. There are the "phishing" ones that purport to come from your bank; the ones saying you're due a tax refund; the "you've won the lottery" ones; and, of course, the ones from wealthy foreigners in Africa who need help moving squillions of dollars out of the country.

However, the email we received recently from Ned Beale, a solicitor who wrote a series of articles for Money two years ago, stopped us in our tracks. It said Beale had been robbed during a trip to Athens – all his belongings were stolen at gunpoint, and he was desperate for help

Full Story >> The Guardian

Full Story >> Moneyam.com

The Financial Services Authority has issued its first warning about carbon credit trading scams.

The City watchdog is warning retail investors about bogus firms promoting such schemes

Full Story >> The Telegraph

The list includes a live-in carer suspected of a £35,000 fraud after she allegedly stole cheques from a vulnerable elderly woman; a man who allegedly posed as an entertainer raising money for a young cancer patient and a man thought to be behind a holiday booking scam.

Full Story >> The Guardian

TODAY the Sunday Sun can reveal the secret life of one of the biggest fraudsters the North has ever seen.

Cunning Douglas Brown nearly brought an international company to its knees when he siphoned off more than £2.4m over 11 years to fund his lavish lifestyle.

Full Story >> The Sunday Sun

From boiler rooms to bogus Syrian protesters looking to use your account to launder money, the financial fraudsters have never been as active.

Fraud in all its guises costs Britons more than £38bn a year, according to the latest police estimates, and following a warning from trading standards officers last week that conmen preying on the unsuspecting "have never had it so good", now is the time to ensure that you protect yourself from unscrupulous, smooth-talking salespeople.

To help you be on your guard, here are our top 10 scams to watch out for this summer.

Full Story >> The Independent

Boiler rooms – illegal high-pressure sales operations pushing overpriced and even non-existent shares – rip off UK investors to the tune of around £200m a year, with many victims parting with five-figure sums.

But as many wise up to their tricks, thanks to warnings issued by the Financial Services Authority and other bodies, the fraudsters are changing their tactics in an attempt to stay one step ahead of the authorities.

Full Story >> The Guardian

Most of us use a credit card or debit card on a regular basis. Unfortunately, however, criminals are finding more and more sneaky ways to use this to their advantage and swindle us out of our hard-earned cash.

So to give you an idea of what you should be looking out for to protect yourself and your money, here are five of the worst card scams.

Full Story >> Lovemoney.com

Full Story >> The Guardian