Exposed: How online fraudsters are ripping off Britain
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 24 May 2023
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It took less than an hour on the Telegram messaging app for an undercover Times reporter to infiltrate a network of fraudsters based in the UK. They openly traded bank details for thousands of victims – and boasted that the police would do nothing to stop them. We hear how the gang were exposed and speak to one of their targets.
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Guest: Emma Yeomans, news reporter, The Times.
Host: Manveen Rana.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You must have seen them. I seem to get them all the time. All those text messages and emails |
| 0:11.2 | claiming to be an urgent message from your bank or from a delivery company about a delivery |
| 0:17.3 | that you really weren't expecting. Sometimes they claim to be from the NHS or from friends |
| 0:23.4 | and family who have apparently lost their phones. All fake messages trying to trick you into |
| 0:32.0 | handing over personal details and money. No surprises there. What might surprise you though is just how |
| 0:41.6 | common thought has become. It's the most common crime in Britain, 41% of all recorded offenses are now |
| 0:48.4 | fraud and about one in 15 Brits will become a victim each year. I mean the financial cost of the |
| 0:53.7 | country of this is staggering. And now one of our undercover reporters has found that criminals are |
| 1:01.6 | openly trading bank details for thousands of British fraud victims a week and boasting that police |
| 1:10.4 | do nothing to stop them. I saw one one person say it's better than selling drugs because the money |
| 1:15.7 | is quite large and the risks of getting caught are quite low. It felt like there was this online |
| 1:21.3 | academy for people looking to commit financial crime and that really interested us. How do these |
| 1:28.8 | scams work and why are so many fraudsters getting away with it? You're listening to stories of our |
| 1:40.1 | times from the times and the Sunday times. I'm Manvine Rana. Today, how credit card fraudsters are |
| 1:49.2 | ripping off Britain. I'm Emma Yomens. I'm one of the reporters on the times. |
| 2:02.8 | You're known as Emma to us but not necessarily when you're when you're out investigating and |
| 2:09.9 | particularly with this investigation where you went on the cover just introduce yourself in your |
| 2:14.5 | undercover guise. Yes, so for this story I was H went by a single initial, a young Londoner looking |
| 2:22.0 | to become a fraudster and hoping to find someone to teach them. You've been looking into this whole |
| 2:30.6 | world of online fraud, of how people at the moment are able to buy and sell bank and credit card |
| 2:36.4 | details and seem to be making a lot of money doing it. Before we get on to exactly how that's |
| 2:42.0 | happening though, tell us a bit about the victims. Let's start with the man we're calling James. |
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