Top five professions most likely to fall victim to COVID-19 scams

Aviva has released its latest fraud report investigating COVID-19 scams revolving around insurance, pensions, savings, and investments – and it seems five professions stood out to be most likely to have fallen victim to scams amid the pandemic.

Aviva's latest data revealed that 22% of people in the UK had received suspicious emails, texts, and phone calls mentioning COVID-19 during the lockdown. Nearly half (46%) of those who received communications suspected to be a financial scam did not report it, with the most common reason not knowing where to report the incident.

Among the victims, the top five professions most likely to have fallen victim to a scam during the COVID-19 crisis are accountants (22%), IT (17%), customer service (11%), administration (8%), and teachers (5%).

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Peter Hazlewood, the group financial crime risk director at Aviva, commented: “You might think people who have a professional qualification, like accountants, and those working within IT would be more resilient to scams. However, becoming a victim of fraud can happen to anyone.”

Aviva's report also found that the most common scams are:

• Policy review: Fraudsters will claim that they are from an insurance company then offer lower premiums but will not mention that the policy has reduced coverage.
• Ghost broking: They are set up to entice customers into buying the product at a low price but will not cover the customer or a third party.
• Pensions, investments, and savings: Fraudsters will offer a “unique” investment opportunity with unrealistically high rates of return.

“People often feel embarrassed to admit they have fallen for a scam, but there is no shame in it. These fraudsters are surprisingly professional and convincing,” Hazlewood said.