Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
- Pound hits $1.42 against weaker dollar, highest since February
- Lamborghini outlines roadmap to electric supercars
- UK unemployment rate fell to 4.8% in January-March
- Employment rate picked up
- Payrolls jumped 97,000 in April… vacancies also up
- But… longer-term unemployment rose
- Economic inactivity among young people at record
6.12pm BST
Anyone who owns a mobile phone in the UK will probably have received a text, or several, claiming they owe a small fee to Royal Mail or other courier firms for a parcel.
It’s a scam, along with similar fake emails, and they’ve tricked many people (including scores of Guardian readers).
With lockdown, we have all become mail-order shoppers, meaning more chance of a spam text landing with someone who is expecting a parcel. Action Fraud, the UK’s national reporting centre for these types of crimes, wasn’t able to give figures across the delivery industry, but says that between June 2020 and January 2021 it received 2,867 crime reports mentioning DPD, and that victims reported losing £3.4m over the same period. In December, the equivalent of 533 fake DPD emails a day were sent on to the suspicious email reporting service, which was launched last year.
When the Guardian asked readers if they had fallen victim to the scam, it received more than 120 responses in five days. Some were from people who had been taken in by the text and the website, and put in their details before smelling a rat. Others had got as far as pressing enter before they realised something was amiss. Others had been caught out completely.
Related: Delivery text scams: the nasty new fraud wave sweeping the UK
5.37pm BST
Back in the City, the FTSE 100 blue-chip index has closed just 1 point higher at 7034 points.
British Airways owner IAG was another one of the days big movers – up 3.6% as the reality of summer travel slowly sinks in.
Despite some reports of queues and warnings that holidaymakers should not head to countries on the amber list, images on social media of sun drenched, empty beaches will undoubtedly push some rain-weary consumers towards travel websites.
Related: Vodafone shares sink after profits and revenue fall
The higher capex guidance, as Vodafone invests in new tech and services like 5G, is why investors are taking some skin out of the game today.
Related: BT to create 7,000 UK jobs in broadband rollout to 25m homes
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