Ever the opportunists, fraudsters continue to exploit crises (both humanitarian and economic) to defraud unsuspecting individuals. It happened during the pandemic and is now happening during the Ukraine conflict. Hundreds of fake charity websites have sprung up since the crisis began earlier this year, all designed to prey on well-meaning donors looking to help those caught up in the conflict.

Fraudsters continue to utilise older tactics known as ‘spoofing’. Though their techniques have evolved, the mechanism remains the same. In other words, fraudsters use all weapons at their disposal to gain access to funds. Increasingly sophisticated online scammers are also replicating the branding of government, financial and commercial organisations to create convincing but counterfeit websites, emails and advertising. Even the UK’s tax authority received 570,000 reports of attempted scams in the last year.

Gavin Quiggin, our head of operational resilience and technology risk, and Marien Schutte, our financial crime governance manager, discuss the latest issues in the world of fraud and cybercrime, and what you can do to protect yourself and your money.