Unseen Money 6: How the UK became fraudster heaven

The UK prides itself in being open for innovative tech firms—and companies in general—to set up business. It takes only £12—and 15-20 minutes—to create a new company online.But the laxity of the country’s system for new company formations has made the UK a goldmine for scammers. And the problem is getting worse: fraud, much of it digital, now accounts for over 40 per cent of all recorded crime in England and WalesIn the latest episode of Unseen Money, Timur Yunusov and I discuss a recent Financial Times article about a London-based fraud victim, Livia Giuggioli Firth, who was conned by scammers into sending £325k from her company’s bank account.Instead of asking for compensation from her own bank for being a victim of an authorised push payment fraud, Ms. Giuggioli Firth took the unusual step of suing the scammers’ bank in court. This forced the disclosure of the names if not of the individual scammers, but of the network of companies they used to launder the stolen money.The court case unveiled some of the principal weaknesses in the UK’s system for deterring and catching fraudsters.In the podcast, we discuss:Why the UK is a heaven for digital fraudstersWhy Companies House is still making it easy for criminalsHow the fintech and AI booms have fuelled scamsWho’s responsible in the UK for fighting scammers?How criminals second-guess anti-fraud systems and the need for ongoing due diligenceThe role of cryptocurrency in laundering stolen moneyShould Zuckerberg and Musk reimburse digital fraud victims?Why AI-enabled scams are certain to become more dangerousWant to join Timur and me on a future episode of Unseen Money to talk about how scammers use Companies House registrations to aid their crimes? Drop me a line at [email protected].