TRACK TRACE FRAUD ALERT
■ CYBER CRIMINALS ‘ARE RUBBING THEIR HANDS WITH GLEE’ ■ DoH WARNS PUBLIC NOT TO REVEAL PASSWORDS OR PINS
SCAMMERS are finding it ‘blisteringly easy’ to pose as coronavirus contact tracers, experts said yesterday.
Anyone armed with a ‘simple app and zero technical knowhow’ can make it appear as if they are calling from the official number that is being used by the new team of NHS trackers.
And, within a day of the test and trace scheme’s launch, reports of scammers impersonating staff were received by trading standards officers in Scotland.
Intended victims were sent texts directing them to a website where their personal details were requested.
Alexis Conran, from the BBC’s The Real Hustle, told Metro such fraud was potentially a ‘huge problem’.
‘I’m very worried that the security system and the guidance is just not enough,’ he said. ‘They need to come up with a number you can contact.’
The warning comes after deputy chief medical officer Dr Jenny Harries raised eyebrows on Sunday by saying people would know calls were genuine as staff would sound ‘professional’.
The Department of Health quickly followed up by tweeting official advice which stresses that tracers will never ask for passwords or bank details, or offer medical advice and help.
But security expert Graham Cluley said scammers would be ‘rubbing their hands in glee’ over the comment from
the senior adviser. Dr Harries (pictured) said at a briefing it would be ‘very evident when somebody rings you these are professionally trained individuals’.
But Mr Cluley, who has worked in tech security for 30 years, said: ‘Cybercrime is big business offering rich rewards.
‘It works to their advantage to underestimate their professionalism.’
Dr Claire Hardaker, a forensic linguist at Lancaster University, warned the doctor’s advice was ‘useless’.
‘White collar criminals abound, as major corporate bankruptcies from Enron to the Lehman Brothers illustrate in a heartbeat,’ she tweeted.
The NHS test and trace system is being run by Dido Harding – who was the boss of TalkTalk in 015 when the details of up to 4million customers were accessed in one of the biggest cyber-attacks in corporate history.
Hailed as ‘world-beating’ by Boris Johnson, the £1.6million-a-day scheme is the cornerstone of efforts to keep the virus in check as the lockdown is eased. With new infections still running at 8,000 a day, everyone newly diagnosed will be asked to list people they have been near for 15 minutes.
A 5,000-strong team has been assembled to trace everyone on the lists using the 0300 013 5000 phone number, and tell them they need to go into selfisolation for 14 days.
But the roll-out has been dogged by technical problems, with some tracers complaining that they still do not have log-in details. Others say they were given no cases to pursue when they did finally gain access.
Ministers have been unable to say how many people have been contacted since the scheme was launched on Thursday. Sky News reporter Sam Coates was put on mute when he pressed health secretary Matt Hancock for a figure via video link at yesterday’s Downing Street briefing.
But testing chief Prof John Newton insisted the number was ‘high’. ‘It’s operating pretty much as we hoped and the contacts are being found,’ he said.
A phone app designed to alert people automatically when they have been in contact with an infected person was due to launch nationally in mid-May, but is still undergoing trials.
The scheme as a whole fails to meet legal privacy obligations, according to the Information Commissioners’ Office. Isabel Oliver, of Public Health England, has said issues would be ‘monitored’. The toll of deaths confirmed by a test to have been caused by the virus rose by 111 to 39,045 yesterday. Mr Hancock said the target of ensuring there is capacity to carry out 00,000 tests a day was hit on Sunday. But only 1 8,4 7 were actually done. And for more than a week no figures have been given on the number of people screened. Sometimes patients have more than one test in a day.