Recruitment scams, where criminals trick victims out of bank details or take control of their phones to steal money, have increased dramatically in the past year. New figures from City of London Police show the amount of money reported stolen via recruitment scam text and WhatsApp messages jumped from £20,000 to nearly £1m in the past year, while the number of people reporting these scams to Action Fraud increased over eightfold. However, police suggest that this may be only the tip of the iceberg as these frauds are hugely underreported.
Recruitment scams involve criminals promising extra work or income to potential victims and then stealing bank details or taking control of their phones. One recent victim, Bella Betterton, opened up to BBC Radio 4’s Money Box after being tricked out of £3,000. Betterton was contacted by scammers via WhatsApp messages and then phone calls. She thought she had taken part in a real job interview before the con artists stole her card details and used them to steal the money.
These recruitment scams are a high-volume, multi-stage crime warns Dr. Lis Carter, a criminologist at Kingston University who is an expert in the language and phrases fraudsters use to trick their victims. The fraudsters take victims through several stages, asking for information ranging from personal details to bank account information. These text messages will only be relevant to a certain number of people, but it’s a numbers game. Criminals only need a few people to respond, and the victims are self-selecting.
Tackling fraud requires a whole-system response across government, law enforcement, and industry, according to City of London Police Temporary Commander Oliver Shaw. He notes that every report received from the public helps build a stronger picture of the problem, enabling law enforcement to investigate fraud more effectively and to take down the bank accounts, websites, and phone numbers used by criminals. Meanwhile, Betterton’s bank has refused to refund her as a victim of fraud, although she is now challenging that decision with the Financial Ombudsman Service. She is working even harder as a waitress to try to make up the money that was stolen and says what’s happened has changed her as a person
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