In 2019 in the UK nearly 100k people were scammed and online fraud is increasing and the criminals are using sophisticated hacking methods to access your financial information and passwords.
The amount of money stolen by criminals through bank transfer scams has risen by 40% in a year and is running at more than £1m a day, according to official UK data. Scammers stole £616m from UK bank customers during the first six months of 2019.
The finance industry prevented £820 millions of unauthorised fraud in the first half of 2019, up 14 per cent on the previous year, according to the latest figures from UK Finance. This is equivalent to £2 in every £3 of attempted unauthorised fraud being stopped, or £4.5 millions of fraud being prevented a day. UK Finance said it had also seen an increase in criminals deploying “digital skimmers” to steal card data from online shoppers.
This typically involves malicious code being added to a retailer’s website, which steals sensitive information including card details at the checkout stage. These stolen details are then used to buy items online.
Look Out For
Phishing scams will often ask you to make an urgent payment, or ask for personal information, or even says you have received a lottery win which you didn’t enter or a tax refund, but the senders address probably does not match the website address. Someone you have not met emails you and says they are in love with you or they are a distant relative who needs health care and then asks for money.
These online crimes are aimed to get control of your bank or credit card details and then steal all your money from you. Before you respond to such emails and texts, take a moment to consider what you are being asked for and if this makes sense.
Source: Cyber Security Intelligence
