Beware of cyber crime
Have you noticed an increase in suspicious calls, texts and emails? Now more than ever, we need to…
We’re all spending increasing amounts of time on screens – be it our phones or our computers – and they were a lifeline to many, especially during lockdown. But are we really safe online?
Members of team best noticed they were getting more suspicious texts during the pandemic, supposedly from delivery companies and well-known retailers. And it seems we’re not alone.
More than 6,000 cases of Covid-related fraud and cybercrimes have been recorded by the UK’s police forces during the pandemic. The Action Fraud team told the BBC that £34.5 million had been stolen since 1 March 2020 in criminal activity in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
They are scary statistics. The City of London Police took down more than 2,000 websites, phone numbers and email addresses linked to the crimes and there were 416,000 reports of fraud and cyber-crime.
The various scam text messages may appear to be from high street banks, Royal Mail, even the tax office. Texts asking you to pay for delivery of a parcel or a recorded message saying you owe money to someone are ways to scare us and lure us in.
While the number of scams seem to have risen dramatically during the pandemic, it’s not a new problem.
One person who understands how easy it is to be tricked by scammers is journalist and broadcaster Sally Jones.
Sally, now 66, was working to a deadline a few years ago and her old laptop became frustratingly slow. So when someone called claiming to be from Microsoft Support, stating that her computer was infected with viruses, it seemed plausible.
‘The caller was polite and convincing,’ Sally says. ‘It sounded exactly like all the people who contact you if you ring technical support.’
Sally was provided with the caller’s name and advised not to deal with anyone else to – ironically – avoid possible fraud. The woman even quoted Sally’s computer licence ID code to ‘prove’ she was genuine.
Usually cautious with these calls, Sally would normally have asked additional questions and checked their credentials before engaging in conversation, but with an important work deadline looming, she agreed to let them work remotely on her computer.
‘They provided – I later realised – bogus information on a vast number of viruses within the computer and
I then stupidly paid them £120 via an overseas transfer company called TransferWise to do the necessary work to fix the computer.’
Strangely, Sally says, her laptop did seem to work faster after that. But when ‘Microsoft’ called back to say the money hadn’t come through, Sally was worried they would think she was trying to swindle them.
When she checked her online bank account, it appeared what they were saying was true. ‘I didn’t realise that, by now, they had control of my computer,’ she says. And, feeling terribly guilty, she authorised another payment.
The following morning, Sally got a call from her bank. Not only had the scammers obtained the two sums of £120, but they’d also tried to take a further £900 from her account. Thankfully, the bank had blocked this transaction.
‘I felt like such a fool,’ Sally says, and although the situation could have been much worse, she was annoyed with herself. She set about changing all her passwords, deleting spyware the scammers had installed and upping her security through proper channels. She also reported the incident, as well as informing loved ones in the hope that they wouldn’t fall victim to scammers too.
‘My son laughed at me when I told him,’ says Sally, who lives near Warwick. ‘I’m sure he would’ve spotted that it wasn’t legitimate immediately.’ But would he?
It’s troubling that scammers are seemingly getting more creative in ways to obtain money from innocent people. Convincing phone calls and plausible texts/emails can fool even the most
‘Scammers are getting more creative’
suspicious among us.
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) says we need to be vigilant when it comes to phishing emails (when criminals attempt to trick people into doing ‘the wrong thing’ such as clicking on dodgy websites), and if whatever is being promised sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
The NCSC introduced the hugely successful Suspicious Email Reporting Service, a new feature of the ACD (Anti Cyber Defence) programme launched in April 2020, which received nearly four million reports of suspect emails from the public last year alone.
The NCSC say that your bank (or any other official source) should never ask you to supply personal information in an email. If you need to check, call your bank directly.
Some scammers will try and create official-looking emails by including logos and graphics (there were fraudsters sending supposed NHS emails and texts during the pandemic), so be wary. If an email addresses you as a ‘valued customer’ or ‘friend’, this could be a sign of phishing and if veiled threats are made, asking you to act urgently on something, be cautious.
If you think you’ve been tricked into providing your password, ensure that you change all passwords on all your accounts. Open your antivirus software and run a full scan. If you’ve lost money, you should report it to Action Fraud.
Action Fraud say that scams and cybercrime come in many different forms, but there are simple steps to help protect yourself. Never give out personal information to organisations or people before verifying their credentials. Ensure your computer has up-to-date antivirus software and a firewall installed. It’s worth enabling two-factor authentication (2FA) for extra protection too.
Sally says her experience has been a valuable lesson, especially when recently receiving bogus calls. ‘I’ve taken full details of any clues from the calls so as to give as much detail as I can to the police fraud reporting department,’ she says. ‘I never give out personal details and I hope sharing my story will help others.’
It just goes to show, we need to be more vigilant than ever and report any suspicious activity.