MILLENNIAL BUGS
Around half of adults have been targeted by a phishing scam recently, with millennials most likely to be affected
CYBERCRIMINALS are exploiting the cost of living crisis in “phishing” attacks to steal money or personal data - and millennials are most at risk. New data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) shows that around half of adults (49.8%) reported receiving a phishing message in the month before they were asked.
These are usually in the form of an email sent by fraudsters posing as legitimate organisations in order to steal personal information or cash.
But other methods of communication are increasingly being used, for example, “smishing” - which is a similar attack but sent via text message.
A report form the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows criminals have used the tactic to exploit the coronavirus pandemic and - more recently- the cost of living crisis, for example by sending people fake emails telling them they have come into contact with someone who tested positive for Covid-19.
Other phishing emails have encouraged people to apply for a cost of living payment - mimicking genuine government support packages.
In the two weeks to August 5, 2022, more than 1,500 reports were made to the Suspicious Emails Reporting Service (SERS), run by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), about scam emails pretending to be legitimate energy rebates from Ofgem, the UK’S energy regulator.
The emails use the Ofgem logo and colours and have the subject header “Claim your bill rebate now”.
Detective Chief Inspector Hayley King, City of London Police said: “It is shameful that in a time of financial hardship, criminals are targeting members of the public by claiming they are entitled to receiving rebates and refunds. If an email is genuine, the company will never push you into handing over your details.”
The CSEW shows that people aged between 25 and 44 - the vast majority of whom are characterised as “millennials” - were most likely to be targeted by phishing attacks, with 57.7% of those aged between 25 and 34 and 60.1% of people aged between 35 and 44 reporting that they received a fake message.
Phishing is less common among older adults, with just over one in four (27.9%) of those aged 75 years and over receiving a suspicious email or text.
Adults were also more likely to receive a phishing message if they were employed, married, in a civil partnership or cohabiting, had children, were homeowners, or if they lived in the least deprived areas of England.
Of people who clicked on a link in a phishing message, more than a third (35%) said they did so for financial or material gain, while 30% did so to pay a fake invoice or bill.
Adults aged 35 to 44 were the most likely of all age groups to click on a link in a phishing attack, with 4.8% doing so, compared to only 1.8% of younger millennials aged 25 to 34.
Among all adults, 3.3% replied or clicked on a link, which is equivalent to more than 700,000 people.
Scam emails can be reported by forwarding them to report@ phishing.gov.uk.
Most phone providers are part of a scheme that allows customers to report suspicious text messages for free by forwarding it to 7726.
ALTHOUGH she may be out of sight, it is clear Ghislaine Maxwell is not out of mind for some of the world’s rich and powerful men.
As the convicted teen sex trafficker now spends the next 20 years of her life behind bars for helping supply girls to sick pervert Jeffrey Epstein, the 60-year-old former socialite is far from a distant memory for many of America’s elite. And with good reason.
This week, it was claimed that Donald Trump was left sweating Maxwell might raise his name to investigators or the media following her arrest in 2020.
Ahead of the release of her highly anticipated book, famed New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman details the extent of the former president’s concern.
In Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America, she tells of just how worried Trump was in July 2020 over a story in the New York Post about his pal Maxwell’s arrest on sex trafficking charges.
He demanded to know if he had been mentioned.
The paper’s report quoted an associate of Epstein – who hanged himself in 2019 while awaiting trial over abusing dozens of girls, helped by Maxwell – as describing the Brit as believing herself to be “protected by the intelligence communities she and [Epstein] helped with information... by Prince Andrew, President Clinton and even by President Trump”.
According to Haberman, Trump asked his advisers about the story in the Oval Office.
”You see that article in the Post today that mentioned me?” he asked.
Greeted with silence, Trump pressed them about Maxwell, who was at that moment in custody. “She say anything about me?” he is said to have asked.
Later, at a White House news conference following her arrest, Trump was asked about the case against her. He stunned reporters by replying: “I haven’t really been following it too much. I just wish her well, frankly.”
It was a sentiment dozens of men within Epstein’s circle could have uttered, due to their fears about what she might say.
But with Epstein dead and Prince Andrew’s good friend Maxwell serving time, months on, the question remains – has justice really been served? It goes without saying Maxwell is not the victim here, but there is something profoundly troubling about her conviction regardless.
That the woman who procured girls for Epstein and his wealthy friends is the only one convicted, while the men involved remain free to live their lives or are beyond the reach of any criminal probe, provokes a sense of unfinished business.
Plenty more high-profile men flew on Epstein’s planes, enjoyed his lavish hospitality, and even stayed over at his mansions yet say they saw nothing untoward.
Of course, it could be that he was so clever nobody suspected a thing. Or, perhaps a predilection for teenage girls doesn’t seem shocking in a rich man’s world.
Epstein cannot stand trial, but that is no reason why plenty of others shouldn’t.
I just wish her well, frankly... Trump on Maxwell