Attempted fraud

    Tackling impersonation fraud

    Insight is very alert to the threat posed by criminals who masquerade as authorised investment firms in their attempts to defraud investors. We have seen cases where fraudsters have misused our brand, recreated fake versions of our materials and have impersonated members of our staff in their efforts to deceive investors.

    This sadly sometimes results in individuals sharing their identity documents with, and remitting funds, to criminals. Fraudsters can be very convincing, and investors have lost significant sums of money. Impersonation fraud is an international concern and we have seen attempts to misuse our brand in the UK, North America, Europe and elsewhere.

    • Insight seeks to identify and report attempts to misuse our name as well as doing what is possible to close fraudulent email domains and websites down.
    • As a responsible member of the investment community, we also work to raise awareness of the threat of fraud.
    • Insight has controls established around all shared contact emails to ensure incoming fraud enquiries are logged and that investors receive timely responses confirming that the contact made to the investor is not us.
    • Insight also issues regular reminders through its social media accounts and regularly updates its web notices, for example with advice for investors about how to avoid impersonation fraud.
    • We encourage UK investors who are concerned that they have been contacted by fraudsters to report to the Financial Conduct Authority (the FCA) and to Action Fraud, the national fraud and cyber crime reporting centre. We also ask them to tell us about it directly, in as much detail as they can, via fraud@insightinvestment.com.
    • We advise that it is also worth discussing fraud risks with your family and friends and the more vulnerable members of our society in particular. The following sites have good resources for advice on avoiding investment and pension scams: Action Fraud, FCA ScamSmart and Which? Consumer Rights.
    • Enhanced brand protection services to prevent fraud: We use an online brand protection service to identify groups seeking to use Insight’s trademarks and identity to mislead contacts and commit financial fraud. Fraudulent enterprises have been identified and shut down and the ongoing monitoring of the digital landscape acts as an early warning system and allows us to take action swiftly.

    More broadly, we firmly believe this continuing problem can only be satisfactorily addressed through government action and targeted legislation, by increasing the accountability of search engines and social media for the content they host. Our view is that the scale of the problem is significantly greater due to victims being unwilling to report fraud or being unaware that they have been defrauded. The lack of enforcement against these scams leads us to expect the situation to deteriorate and Insight shared these concerns with legislators in relation to the development of the UK Online Safety Act.

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