One of the most notorious incidents of cyber crime to date also stands out for the bare-faced cheek and simplicity of the methods employed. When criminals targeted Austrian aerospace firm FACC, they didn’t bother trying to hack into the company’s IT systems, bring down firewalls with a DDoS attack, or plant malware on its servers to quietly mine sensitive data.

Instead, they simply impersonated CEO Walter Stephan, sending a fake email in his name authorising a junior member of the accounts teams to send $47m to what the email claimed was the bank account of a company Mr Stephan was negotiating to buy. It wasn’t, and the thieves made off with the biggest single haul in cybercrime history.

Read more: Deep Fake: The Next Frontier in Cyber Scams

In our line of work, we come across some colourful characters to say the very least. We all know the stereotypes about the shady circles debt collectors have to move in. Well, while we’re not always keen on the cliches, the truth is in the course of recovering debts, we do have to deal with a motley assortment of fraudsters, conmen, chancers and career criminals, all often operating under the guise of supposedly legitimate business interests.

What we certainly never do is feel any ill will towards anyone we attempt to collect money from. At the end of the day, it is a professional service we provide, to look after the interests of the small business owners, freelancers and contractors who come to us, often at their wits end, to try to get back money that is rightfully theirs. But whoever it is that owes the money, and whatever their reasons for not paying their debts, they are still people.

Read more: Tragic End for Career Conman Underlines Flaws in Fraud Prevention

The number of County Court Judgments (CCJs) against businesses in England and Wales shot up by 12% in the first quarter of 2019, according to official figures from the Registry Trust.

A total of 35,779 CCJs were issued in the first three months of the year with a combined value of £107.2 million - a year-on-year increase of 6% from the same period in 2018. The figures show that judgments have gone up against both incorporated and non-incorporated businesses, part of a longer term trend which has seen the net value and frequency of CCJs increase.

Read more: County Court Judgments Against Businesses Soar in First Quarter of 2019

Here’s a debt recovery story with a twist - a sales rep sues his erstwhile employer for unpaid commission, wins, and then discovers that the business unit he worked for has been shut down mid-action, with all its assets transferred to a new legal entity.

The upshot being, a year on from being awarded his claim in court, he is yet to receive a penny.

Read more: Oracle and the Murky World of Sales Commissions

New figures from the Insolvency Service show a shocking decline in enforcement actions against unscrupulous businesses since the government’s austerity programme was introduced in 2010.

According to the Service’s regular Enforcement Outcomes updates, the number of interventions to wind up companies in the public interest is set to decline again this year, the fourth consecutive annual fall. Over the longer term, in 2009/10 there were 267 successful petitions to close companies down, compared to just 73 in 2017/18 - a decrease of 73%. In the current year, with just a month to go, there have been just 57 completed actions.

Read more: Austerity Hammers Efforts to Protect Public from Rogue Businesses

Backers of a project to reboot the classic ZX Spectrum as a handheld games console have been left half a million pounds out of pocket after the developer went to the wall.

As we have previously reported, the project to bring back the cult 80s device launched by Retro Computers Ltd has been dogged with problems in what has become a long-running saga.

The company initially set up a crowdfunding campaign through IndieGoGo to bring the concept to life. It raised £513,000 from more than 4,500 backers, with Retro promising each enthusiast a finished console when production was completed.

Read more: Spectrum VEGA+ Backers Face Fight for Cash As Developer Goes Under

It’s a phrase that has become a mantra for personal injury and small claims lawyers. Imported from the US legal system in the mid-90s, No Win, No Fee is the consumer-friendly name given to a method of claims financing officially known as a conditional fee agreement.

It more or less works as the two names suggest - payment is conditional on the case being won. This means litigants don’t have to raise funds up front for expensive legal action, it is the lawyers that take on the risk, and final payment is usually taken as a percentage of the compensation won.

Read more: No Win, No Fee: Too Good To Be True?

Action Fraud are warning UK based consumers and businesses to be aware of a new type of financial scam, fraudsters claiming to be bailiffs are sending SMS messages or making calls to targets across the UK in the hope of pressuring them to pay fictitious debts.

The scam sees victims receive texts by the fraudsters about the fake debt, claiming that they will "attend your address for resolution" if payment of the imaginary debt is not made.

Read more: Fake Bailiff Telephone and Text Scams