Sim-Swapping Fraud & Pet Micro-Chips

Listener Emma shares her experience of fraudsters spending thousands of pounds after they hijacked her identity and her efforts to clear her name. She’d been targeted by a sim-swapping fraud, cases of which Action Fraud says have doubled in each of the last two years.

Holly and the team speak to a colleague who leads them into the world of pet microchip databases, where they find not all databases are equal. She’d been contacted by an unauthorised database which she says she has never interacted with, but it somehow had all of her information. Phil McKinnon of the Association of Microchip Database Operators explains that this is something the industry is actively tackling and advises on how to make sure your pet is registered with an authorised database.

The team gets an update from a customer sold a dodgy second-hand car who has been trying to get his money back, and asks politicians where they stand on the issue of a mandatory regulator for second-hand car sales.

Listener Diane asks the team for help when the gift card she bought as a birthday gift for her daughter has no money on it.

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