Authority reports 15,000 cases of fraud and cyber crime netting £238,500

MORE THAN 15,000 reports of email and social media hacking were received by Action Fraud in the last year.

The UK’s fraud and cyber crime authority said almost nine in 10 incidents brought to its attention between February 2020 and February this year were from members of the public whose personal accounts had been compromised, resulting in £283,500 collectively being stolen.

About a quarter were from victims aged between 20 and 29 years old.

But businesses, sole traders and charities paid the highest price, recording a loss of £3.8m, despite only making up 1,741 alerts out of the total 15,214 sent to Action Fraud.

The City of London Police – which operates Action Fraud and the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau – is warning people and firms to secure accounts as part of a new national awareness campaign.

Superintendent Sanjay Andersen, the head of the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, said: “One of the most important things that you can do to improve the security of your online accounts is having two-factor authentication enabled.

“Not only will it prevent hackers accessing your accounts even if they have your password, but it will also keep your valuable information out of the hands of criminals.”

Previous data from 2019 to 2020 found that Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat were the most reported platforms on which people had their social media accounts compromised. The most common tactic criminals use is phishing messages, where recipients are asked to click on a link which takes them to a fake website which is designed to harvest log in details and passwords.