“Friendly Fraud” on the rise – PSNI also warn of impersonators locally

“Friendly Fraud” on the rise – PSNI also warn of impersonators locally

So called ‘friendly fraud’ is on the rise, according to an international report – while locally the PSNI has warned businesses and elderly people to beware of police impersonators.

The PSNI said the public needs to be “extra vigilant” after a number of reports in the past week, including requests for the victim to leave their bank card in a post box.

Ch Supt Simon Walls said “police will never call you and ask for bank details”.

‘Friendly fraud’

In late 2020 Signifyd surveyed 3,000 consumers about their buying habits. The responses to the surveys conducted during the first two weeks of September were in sharp contrast to Signifyd’s pre-pandemic survey. In January, before the COVID-19 pandemic swept the country and the world, only 8.1% of consumers said that they had made a false claim that an ecommerce order was never delivered in order to keep the product and land a refund. The survey from September revealed that over a third of participants admitted to committing ‘Friendly Fraud’.

Key findings

Key findings from the report include early 36% of UK consumers commit friendly fraud regarding missing packages; 32.1% of UK respondents admitted to breaking discount or promotion rules in order to receive a price break they were not entitled to; in the U.S. 40.3% of consumers said they asked for a refund because of a fraudulent charge when in fact they knew no fraud had been committed. In the UK, the number was 36.1%.

In the U.S, 60.4% of consumers said they would be spending less this year compared to 66.7% of UK respondents said they would be spending less due to the effects of COVID-19 on income. In the UK, 47.9% of respondents said a year from now they’d be shopping differently than they were a year ago, because they’d be relying more heavily on click-and-collect.

In the U.S., 60.1% said they expected to continue to more heavily use buy online, pick up in store or at the curb.
Full report: https://www.signifyd.com/blog/2020/09/29/friendly-fraud-rising-survey-says/