Skip to content 
Search

Latest Stories

"I think it destroyed him," says daughter of fraud victim as MPs launch attack on tech giants

INDUKUMAR PATEL, 87, from Barnet, north London, who lost £130,000 to scammers, was one of the recent victims of online fraud as reports say that there is an increase in the trend.

Now, Patel's family is locked in a battle with Lloyds Bank over what it claims was its failure to protect him from the scam that cost him his life savings, reported The Times.


Patel lost £130,000 after clicking on a Google ad that led him to what looked like a famous American bank. He carried out checks on the bank, but the criminal gang behind the fraud had created an elaborate facade. And the fact it was advertised on Google reassured him it was legitimate.

“I think it destroyed him. He is such a proud man," his daughter Poorvi Smith told Channel 4.

“He was full of life, full of vitality, and pretty much from that day (he) just didn’t want to socialise anymore, just withdrew from everything, didn’t eat, lost his appetite, just sat in his room all day, didn’t even want to see us. He didn’t even want to see his family, which is heartbreaking.”

According to Smith, she had lost her dad six months before he actually died because his 'personality and soul just completely changed'.

She told Channel 4: “At the hospital, the doctors did say to us, has he had a big trauma? Has he had a shock because he’s acting like a person in shock? He just said, ‘I don’t want to live anymore. I’ve messed up. I’ve let you all down. I don’t want to live’.

"And that, to me was just devastating because he shouldn’t have been the one that was feeling guilty.”

According to The Times report, In November 2020, Lloyds refunded him £20,000 of his losses, admitting that it had failed to give him information about investment scams.

A banking lobby group has recently said that financial fraud rocketed in Britain in the first six months of this year, as consumers increasingly shop online as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Fraudsters stole £753.9 million in the first half of 2021, an increase of 30 per cent over last year, the trade association UK Finance calculated.

This week, at the Treasury Select Committee meeting, MPs have launched an attack on tech giants for failing to tackle online fraud.

Conservative MP Anthony Browne asked Amanda Storey, Google’s director of trust and safety, whether the company would compensate their customers that are victims of fraud.

She responded saying they are working to make sure they are never in a position where a user needs compensation.

Asked if they have ever compensated anyone who has lost money from fraud through Google, she said “we have not”.

Browne also asked Allison Lucas, content policy director, Facebook, whether the social media company will compensate victims of fraud. He also alleged that the company is refusing to give compensation to victims like financial services firms.

Lucas responded that Facebook is committed to solving the issue of fraud.

During the hearing, Browne said that tech companies profit from fraud and advertising fraud, but they never suffer any of the losses. 

More For You

Modi set for UK visit to sign free trade agreement

FILE PHOTO: Keir Starmer (L) with Narendra Modi. (Photo: Getty Images)

Modi set for UK visit to sign free trade agreement

INDIA's prime minister Narendra Modi is likely to travel to the UK by the end of this month for a visit that could see both sides formally sign the landmark India-UK free trade agreement and explore ways to expand bilateral ties in the defence and security sphere, diplomatic sources said.

Both sides are in the process of finalising the dates for Modi's visit to the country by the end of July or the first part of August, they said.

Keep ReadingShow less
Rishi Sunak returns to Goldman Sachs, will donate salary to charity

Rishi Sunak. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

Rishi Sunak returns to Goldman Sachs, will donate salary to charity

FORMER prime minister Rishi Sunak has returned to the banking world as senior adviser at Goldman Sachs group, with plans to donate his salary to the education charity he recently established with his wife Akshata Murty.

The US-headquartered multinational investment bank, where Sunak worked before entering politics, made the announcement on Tuesday (8) after the requisite 12-month period elapsed since the British Indian leader's ministerial term concluded following defeat in the general election on July 4 last year.

Keep ReadingShow less
 Post Office Horizon

A Post Office van parked outside the venue for the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry at Aldwych House on January 11, 2024 in London.

Getty Images

Post Office scandal linked to 13 suicides, says inquiry

Highlights:

 
     
  • Public inquiry finds up to 13 suicides linked to wrongful Post Office prosecutions.
  •  
  • Horizon IT system faults led to false accusations, financial ruin, and imprisonment.
  •  
  • Sir Wyn Williams says Post Office maintained a “fiction” of accurate data despite known faults.

A PUBLIC inquiry has found that up to 13 people may have taken their own lives after being wrongly accused of financial misconduct by the Post Office, in what is now described as one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British history.

Keep ReadingShow less
UK ramps up drought response following driest spring

The EA has begun conducting more compliance checks on high-usage industries

Getty Images

UK ramps up drought response following driest spring since 1893

Key points

  • Spring 2025 was England’s driest and warmest in over 130 years
  • Reservoirs across England only 77% full, compared to 93% average
  • Environment Agency increases monitoring and drought planning
  • North-west England officially declared in drought

Water conservation measures stepped up ahead of summer

The UK government has increased efforts to manage water resources after confirming that England experienced its driest and warmest spring since 1893. The Environment Agency (EA) reported that reservoirs were on average only 77% full, significantly lower than the usual 93% for this time of year.

The announcement came after a National Drought Group meeting on Thursday, which reviewed the impact of continued dry weather on crops, canal navigation, and river flows. Poor grass growth and dry soil conditions were noted as threats to food production and livestock feed.

Keep ReadingShow less
Norman Tebbit

Following Thatcher’s third general election victory in 1987, Tebbit stepped back from frontline politics to care for his wife. (Photo: Getty Images)

Getty Images

Former minister, Thatcher ally Norman Tebbit dies at 94

Norman Tebbit, a close ally of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher and a former Conservative Party cabinet minister, has died at the age of 94. His son William confirmed the news on Tuesday.

"At 11:15 pm on 7th July, 2025, Lord Tebbit died peacefully at home aged 94," William Tebbit said in a statement.

Keep ReadingShow less