Old people hit by criminals

Pensioners have been cheated out of almost £1b and now crooks are buying their personal data for just 16p

Pensioners are easy prey to the criminal gangs after their cash

THE elderly could be suffering a ‘ silent epidemic ’ of fraud after it emerged the over-70s have lost almost £1 billion in the past three years.

And experts fear the true figure could be higher, as many pensioners are too scared to report crimes or don ’t realise they ’ ve been a victim.

Money Mail analysis of Action Fraud figures reveals scam victims aged over 70 lost about £977 million in total between April 2019 and 2022.

The very elderly, aged between 90 and 99, reported £116 million stolen, an average of £6,097 each.

And this is despite the age group accounting for 19,059 of the total 178,772 cases logged among the over-70s.

People in their 20s and 30s reported the most incidents of fraud, but their losses averaged less than half those of the over-90s, at £2,391 — £825 million over the same period.

Of all age groups, it was victims in their 50s who suffered the biggest total loss in each one of the three years,Action Fraud’ s figures show. continued on page 3

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Personal data and wealth sold online for just 16p

TODAY’S pensioners are able to live a fairly luxurious lifestyle with mortgage free homes, holidays abroad and regularly dining out with friends on their pension pots.

But today’s pensioners are also the potential victims of today’s criminals who see them as easy targets.

Anyone can find the private details of a person on the dark web, but now it seems the criminals are buying that data off Facebook groups for just 16p a person.

BBC Breakfast Live was apparently able to purchase the details of 1,000 people living in Britain for just £160.

The personal data was said to include names, home addresses, email addresses, estimated net worth as well as estimated income bracket.

Wealthy pensioners are particularly at risk, the BBC says, with many Facebook posts advertising sets of data with tags such as “rich people” , “high income” , “home owners” , and “old age” .

The BBC laid the blame squarely on Meta for not scrubbing its platform clean from this type of illegal activity.

Meta has responded to the allegations, saying: “We remove this content when we become aware of it and have taken down the groups in question. ”

Unfortunately being young and a long way from home ownership might not protect you from cybercrime.

UK businesses are reportedly getting caught by fraudsters more often than the global average.

A solid majority - 64% - of UK firms experienced an instance of fraud in the last two years, an increase from 56% in 2020, and well above the global average of 46% according to PWC' s Global Economic Crime Survey. This might not have been the first instance in which Meta has handed data over when it shouldn 't have. A Bloomberg report has accused Apple and Meta of handing over sensitive data to cybercriminals who had been impersonating police, and who managed to steal data from numerous tech companies using the trick.

The news comes as the way in which Facebook handles data is coming under greater scrutiny, at least within the EU.

Irish regulators have decided to force the social media giant to stop sending users ' data to the US, forcing them to store data locally.

from page 2 Professor Keith Brown, formerly of Bournemouth University and an expert in safeguarding adults, says: “The fraud that occurs among elderly people who live alone is under-reported and victims are too ashamed to come forward.

“And vulnerable elderly people, such as those with dementia, are at higher risk as they are unlikely to realise they have been scammed.

“It’ s a silent epidemic. If you have elderly relatives, or people you care for, you can almost assume they are going to be a victim. ’

The Daily Mail revealed last month that Britain has become the fraud capital of the world and is campaigning for a major overhaul to the system.

When confronted with this investigation on LBC radio, technology and digital economy minister Chris Philp admitted fraud is a ‘huge problem ’ and —

‘ shockingly ’ — still growing.

He also warned that Google and Facebook need to do ‘ a lot more ’ to stop people ’ s money disappearing ‘in a puff of smoke ’ after responding to a fraudulent advert online.

One major bank says its figures also show the amount of money lost to fraud increases with the victim ’ s age.

Liz Ziegler, director of fraud and financial crime at Lloyds Bank, explains: “Older people tend to be at higher risk of more complex scams, like investment, impersonation or romance scams, with fraudsters going to great lengths to convince their victim to hand over their cash.

“This is in contrast to the more common purchase scam, where we typically see younger people tricked into buying things such as fake trainers, with the amounts involved smaller overall but occurring more frequently. ”

Experts suggest older generations are more at risk from impersonation scams, where they are pressured into sending money to crooks posing as banks and tax officials, as they tend to trust figures of authority.

Fraudsters also know younger people typically have less money to lose, whereas those approaching retirement have often accrued large sums of savings.

Professor Brown added: “It’ s about loneliness, too. Older people who live alone and do not have someone in the house to “ sense check” things are more susceptible to coercive control. ”

The concerns follow reports last week that sensitive and private data of wealthy elderly people is being sold to scammers on Facebook for as little as 16p.

Posts advertising data for sale such as ‘UK old age high income leads ’ are prevalent on the social networking site, according to an investigation by the BBC.