A small business owned by Steve Wright, Kent Brushes, was scammed by thieves who stole £1.6m in a matter of minutes through fraud. One of the company’s employees was tricked by the fraudsters into giving them access to Kent Brushes’ bank account. Wright criticised the response from both his bank and national fraud and cybercrime reporting agency Action Fraud. He said the case was handled “appallingly”. No arrests have so far been made and the bank has refused to refund the money. Wright has also received a letter from Action Fraud that he believes was quite dismissive.
The incident took place in July and is an example of an increasingly used authorised push payment (APP) scam. This is where criminals psychologically manipulate victims into transferring funds to their own accounts. With around 1.25 million cases of fraud being recorded by the UK Home Office each year, it is worrying that only around 4% lead to an investigation and over 4,000 lead to a prosecution.
Adrian Searle, Director of the National Economic Crime Centre, called for longer prison sentences for those convicted of fraud in August. Currently, the maximum sentence for fraud is 10 years but the average sentence is only 2 years, even in the most serious cases. Searle described longer sentences for those causing the highest harm from fraud as necessary, adding that the emotional impact on victims should be carefully considered.
Although companies like Kent Brushes receive no protection from scams, unlike individual consumers who are often eligible for reimbursement, most high street banks assess claims and refund innocent victims of fraud as part of agreements such as the Contingent Reimbursement Model code. Barclays argued that it was clear Kent Brushes was the victim of a complex scam and that the bank would never ask customers to pass on sensitive data such as OTPs
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