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Payment fraud: Millions lost in money transfer trick - BBC News

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"A total of £236m was lost last year, with banks unable to return nearly three-quarters (74%) of the money lost. Victims think they are transferring money to someone official, such as a solicitor. They often occur when people transfer money during a housing transaction, or when paying an invoice for work done on the home. The fraudsters may have intercepted mail or hacked emails, then pose as the legitimate business by sending a payment demand. Legal back-up This is the first time such calculations have been made by UK Finance, showing that there were 43,875 reported cases of these scams. Nearly nine in 10 (88%) of these were consumers, who lost an average of £2,784. The rest were businesses who lost on average of £24,355 per case."

From "Payment fraud: Millions lost in money transfer trick - BBC News".

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