Crooks target elderly in ‘epidemic of scams’
Keep calm and carry a dog ... how British life goes on
CALLOUS criminals are exploiting the coronavirus pandemic to target the elderly and vulnerable in their homes by posing as NHS workers and Good Samaritans.
Several police forces have warned that thieves are stealing cash and bank cards after offering to buy groceries for isolated pensioners.
Meanwhile, millions of Britons are being targeted by bogus online firms offering to sell face masks and hand sanitisers.
The scammers are trying to extract personal and bank details through a blizzard of emails purportedly from the World Health Organisation and the taxman.
In one case, a hospice said hackers had stolen the medical data of more than 1,000 terminally sick patients and their next of kin.
Yesterday, a 59- year- old man appeared in court charged with making fake coronavirus treatment kits and mailing them across the world. Frank Ludlow, from West Sussex, was arrested in a Post Office near his home on Friday and appeared in Brighton Magistrates’ Court. The investigation was triggered after US customs intercepted a package last Wednesday containing 60 fake kits labelled ‘ anti- pathogenic treatment’, the court heard. Ludlow was remanded in custody until April 20.
Three police forces and Action
Fraud last night warned the public to be vigilant against an ‘epidemic of scams’.
Kloe Burrows, from West Midlands Police economic crime unit, said: ‘Times like these can bring out the best and worst in people. While some will be looking out for vulnerable relatives and friends, we know a small minority will be looking to profit from the worry and concerns caused by coronavirus.’
Scotland Yard and Greater Manchester Police s ai d t hey had received reports of criminals posing as NHS workers who had come to carry out Covid-19 testing. Once let in, they robbed their victims.
Elsewhere, fraudsters posed as kind-hearted locals offering to buy groceries. But instead of returning with the shopping, they simply fled with the money.
Action Fraud said it had been inundated with complaints about cons totalling almost £1 million in recent weeks, including a medical company that lost £15,000 after it ordered a batch of face masks from a bogus online firm.
Ellenor hospice in Gravesend, Kent, was targeted by hackers just as the coronavirus was taking a grip in the UK.
In a letter to patients last week, chief executive Vikki Harding, said: ‘I am writing to inform you of a recent data breach incident that occurred on February 7, 2020, at Ellenor hospice.
‘I am writing to you because some of your personal information may have been accessed. I am so sorry that this happened and any distress it may cause you.’
Mimecast, an online security company, said it had detected more than one million scam emails every day. And internet security firm Proofpoint, which has seen hundreds of thousands of phishing emails, said most were coming from Eastern Europe, Russia and the former Soviet states, but also from African countries including Nigeria.