The bank has urged people to take steps to protect themselves
Lloyds Bank has warned all social media users of scams after data shows people are losing out on average around £570. There is a rising number of people losing out on money from online fraudsters.
As reported by Liverpool Echo, Lloyds said the victims of these scams can often be lured by cheaper or hard to find items. People are asked to send money directly from their account to another account via bank transfer, which provides very little consumer protection when something goes wrong.According to new data by Lloyds Banking Group more than two thirds of all purchase scams now start on Facebook, including Facebook Marketplace, and Instagram.
Speaking to Liverpool Echo Liz Ziegler, Lloyds' fraud prevention director said: "Social media has become the Wild West of online shopping in recent years, with very few checks in place to verify who is selling what. This has left consumers increasingly exposed to ruthless fraudsters, with hundreds of new victims targeted every day and tens of millions of pounds flowing to organised crime gangs each year.
A spokesperson for Meta, which owns both Facebook and Instagram, said: “This is an industry-wide issue and scammers are using increasingly sophisticated methods to defraud people in a range of ways including email, SMS and offline.
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