Financial fraud on the rise

Between 2004 and 2007, fraudulent applications for financial products rose by 25% (to 77,000). In 2007 one in five of those was successful.

The Credit Industry Fraud Avoidance System (Cifas), which conducted the study, pointed to two drivers for this. First, inexpensive, high-quality printing technology has made it easier for people to fake supporting documents, such as passports, bank statements and utility bills. Second, and plainly more recently, the credit crunch has meant that banks are looking more closely at people with unhealthy credit histories, so these people are resorting actively to fraud to circumvent the new more rigorous checks (which should, of course, always have been in place).

Further,

> The age of those making false claims has also decreased and is now 35 for men and 33 for women. This, Cifas believes, is proof that individuals in the UK are getting into financial difficulty at a younger age.

(Source: FT)