Thousands defrauded in £48m hoax which let scammers impersonate high street banks

More than 200,000 potential victims in the UK alone have been directly targeted through fraud website

Hundreds of thousands of Britons have been defrauded in a multi-million-pound scam via a website that allowed criminals to pose as high street bank representatives.

International scam website iSpoof was taken down in the UK’s biggest-ever fraud operation by the Metropolitan Police, codenamed Operation Elaborate. More than £48 million was taken from victims as a result of the platform, the force said.

More than 200,000 potential victims in the UK alone have been directly targeted through the website, which allowed scammers to pose as high street banks including Barclays, Santander, HSBC, Lloyds, Halifax, First Direct, Natwest, Nationwide and TSB.