- Being a member
- CIMA Professional Development
- Members in Practice
- Members' Handbook
- Global alliances
- Money laundering regulations
- Anti money laundering guidance
- Registering for supervision
- Registering with CIMA
- How supervision will take place
- HMRC and anti-money laundering supervision
- Customer due diligence
- PEPs and enhanced due diligence
- Keeping records
- Suspicious activity reporting to SOCA
- Forty recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force
- Risk based approach to anti-money laundering
- Reliance on other professionals' CDD
- Professional clearance letters
- TCSPs
- Regulation of TCSPs
- Phishing
- Legal professional privilege
- Practising accountants who leave CIMA
- Regulations for Channel Islands and Isle of Man
- Legislation in the Irish Republic
- Equivalent countries for anti money laundering procedures
Phishing
Money laundering takes many forms, and affects individuals as well as businesses. The objective of phishing is to obtain your personal banking details; it is therefore also a form of identity theft.
You will receive an email purporting to be from a bank/ building society, or from eBay or PayPal. It may inform you that there has been a breach of your security or you need to update, or that you have purchased an item – which you haven't! You are then directed to a website that appears to be legitimate where you will be tricked into disclosing your banking or identity details.
If you receive any such message:
• do not reply
• do not pass any personal information by email
Should you be worried, contact the real company or organisation by post or telephone at an address or number you know to be genuine.
You should purchase appropriate computer software to protect you from this type of attack. Anti-Spyware and personal firewalls are ideal, and anti-virus software will give you a measure of protection.
Cash back fraud may result when you offer something for sale on the internet, or even in the small ads in a local paper. You may be contacted by a 'buyer' who wants to purchase the advertised item without wanting to see it. You will then receive a cheque for considerably more than the asking price. You will be asked to send some or all of the difference to the buyer/shipping agent by money transfer (usually Western Union). The cheque will either be forged or stolen and even if cleared by your bank, it can later be recalled and you will not be reimbursed for your loss.
The Times on 2 November 2005 recorded that a fraudster who duped almost £200,000 from eBay customers using a phishing scam had been jailed by Preston Crown Court. David Levi of Lytham, Lancashire, led a gang that amassed the fortune by stealing account details from users and assuming their identities. It is believed to be the first successful prosecution for phishing.
Statistics from APACS, the Association for Payment Clearing Services, show that fraud on credit cards through internet, mail order and telephone sales (where a card's details are provided, but the card is not seen by the trader) grew by 29% to £90.6 million by the end of 2005.
Research established that many people put themselves at risk of fraud through failing to take basic precautions. For instance, one in eight people failed to log out after shopping online, leaving their financial details available for others to see, while one in four does not check if a website is secure (the padlock symbol to the bottom right of your screen will usually indicate this).
People are also urged to sign up to security schemes such as Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode, under which you have to type in a password or security code when you buy online, making it impossible for fraudsters to use stolen card details without this information.