Investors lose £78m as lockdown sees 'clone fraud' surge

On average people lost more than £45,000 to online fraudsters, according to the data which also showed reports of cloned firms increased almost 30% from April to March last year as scammers took advantage of fears related to the first Covid-19 lockdown and related market volatility. Action Fraud released the data as part of the Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA) ScamSmart campaign. It also found 42% of investors are worried about their finances due to the pandemic and 77% plan to make an investment in the next six months to help improve their financial prospects. The results also sho...