Young adults – those aged 16 to 34 – are most likely to be involved in fraudulent conduct, according to the counter-fraud trade association Cifas, a membership body of banks, insurers, retailers and others. Its survey suggested that more than one in seven in that age range admitted to taking part in at least one form of first-party fraud.
The types of first-party fraud seen as the most ‘reasonable’ thing to do by respondents were selling a vehicle that was subject to a finance agreement (by one in five, 22.9pc of those surveyed), money muling (16.6pc) and submitting a false insurance claim (10.3pc). These scenarios were also the least likely to be associated with being illegal.
Data from the National Fraud Database during the first nine months of 2021 point to an 18pc increase in cases of fraudulent conduct by first-parties, compared to the same period in 2020. The most common forms of this were the misuse of bank accounts, with almost 56,000 cases, or more than seven in ten instances of first-party fraudulent conduct.
Cifas’ Head of Fraud Intelligence, Amber Burridge, said: ‘The findings reveal a continued attitude of fraud being a victimless crime. Committing what may be seen to be ‘everyday’ fraud impacts all our daily finances, such as through higher insurance premiums, increased delivery fees and bigger council tax bills. It’s vital we all recognise the consequences of committing fraud and aren’t tempted into doing it.
‘Research by RUSI has proven the link between fraud and organised crime, and we know criminals will often attempt to convince those they recruit that what they’re doing is harmless. A common example of this is money muling, whereby individuals are asked to receive money into their bank account and forward the funds on to another account, keeping a proportion for themselves. In fact, this money has likely come from someone who has been scammed and criminals are trying to mask the money in order to fund high harm crimes such as drug trafficking, people trafficking and terrorist financing.
‘If an opportunity to make money feels too good to be true, then it probably is. Always take time to do your research and consider the impacts of getting involved before doing so.’
Methodology
The survey was carried out by Opinion Matters on behalf of Cifas with a nationally representative sample of 2,000 UK adults in early October. Visit https://www.cifas.org.uk/.
