The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is asking customers to be additional vigilant of fraudsters impersonating the regulator, after it revealed it had obtained virtually 5,000 pretend FCA rip-off reviews within the first half of 2025.
Scammers steal cash by persuading individuals at hand over funds or private info, akin to checking account PINs and passwords.
There have been 4,465 reviews of faux FCA scams to the regulator’s shopper helpline up to now this 12 months, with 480 victims tricked into sending cash to the fraudster.
Almost two-thirds of reviews got here from individuals 56 years outdated or above.
One frequent rip-off technique is fraudsters claiming that the FCA has recovered funds from a crypto pockets that was opened illegally within the particular person’s title.
Another is to focus on mortgage rip-off victims and declare the FCA may help them get well the cash they’ve misplaced. The particular person is then persuaded at hand over additional funds.
In different situations, customers obtain and electronic mail informing them their collectors have taken out a County Court Judgement in opposition to them they usually should pay the FCA the quantity owed.
Commenting on the growing prevalence of monetary scams AJ Bell senior pensions and financial savings professional Charlene Young mentioned: “This new warning from the FCA makes for grim studying, as monetary scammers are actually impersonating the regulator itself. The figures signify the full variety of reviews to the FCA the place individuals realise they’ve been focused and are prepared to make a report. However, the true quantity of victims and makes an attempt will probably be a lot larger.
She identified that essentially the most weak individuals proceed to be those that are most actively focused. “We noticed monetary vulnerability notably uncovered by fraudsters throughout the worst of the Covid pandemic, and the cost-of-living disaster that adopted it.
“While individuals of all ages can fall sufferer to scammers, those that are capable of entry their retirement pot – probably the most important asset they personal – will inevitably be a chief goal,” Young mentioned.
