Nearly £10m ($13.3m) has been lost to sophisticated “cloning” investment scams since the UK lockdown began in March, new data has revealed.
More than 200 British retail investors were affected by the scam as fraudsters cloned genuine investment management companies’ products, websites and documentation, according to
the Investment Association (IA).
The trade body added that scammers then promoted fake products on sham price comparison websites and adverts on social media and search engines.
Losses added up to £9.4m between March and mid-October, with the total number of reported incidents of scams nearly quadrupling from approximately 300 in July to 1175 in October.