Pause before handing over details anti-fraud campaign urges as figures reveal every 15 seconds someone falls victim
Every 15 seconds someone in the UK falls victim to a fraud scam, new figures show.
More than one million cases of financial fraud where victims lost money were detected in the first half of 2016, a 53% increase compared to the previous year, new figures from Financial Fraud Action UK (FFA UK) show.
As a result of the 1,007,094 incidents between January and June, FFA UK has launched a campaign to combat financial fraudsters who "prey on people's trusting nature".
Take Five, which is launched in conjunction with major banks and financial services providers, encourages people to stop and think before they respond to financial requests or hand over personal details.
Backing the campaign, commissioner City of London Police Ian Dyson, the national policing lead for fraud, said: "Fraud and cyber crime account for nearly half of all crime, according to the British Crime Survey, and this campaign is aimed at giving people the confidence to think before they act.
"Pausing for that short moment and asking ourselves, 'Is this the safe thing to do?', will go a long way to thwarting the fraudsters that prey on people's trusting nature."