Crime

Phone scams have been on the rise in 2014 with criminals targeting households across the UK to try and defraud people out of their money.

Typically, the fraudsters call members of the public pretending to be from a trusted organisation – like your bank, the police or a computer company – and once they have your trust, they will ask for your financial information, encourage you to hand over cards or cash to a courier, or get you to transfer money into accounts they control.

The people behind these scams are organised and highly professional – so spotting whether the call is genuine, or fake, can be very difficult.

That is why the UK Banks building societies and card issuers, with the support of the police, have published a Joint Declaration which clearly explains those requests they will NEVER ask of you on the phone. (more…)

Coming soon to a mailbox near you: a blatant attempt to swipe your payment information. Couched in the well-worn guise of a supposed Apple Store refund, the mail wants potential victims to hand over their Apple ID / password and then a chunk of personal / payment details. (more…)

The phone and broadband provider Talk Talk which has over 4 million UK customers have that said banking details and personal information could have been accessed by hackers in a recent cyber attack. 

Credit card, bank account details, names, addresses, dates of birth, email addresses and telephone numbers could all have been accessed by hackers according to Talk Talk. (more…)

We’ve just carried out some new independent research, surveying 2,000 people, from which one of the main findings is that cybercrime is getting personal – with one in five victims believing that they were specifically targeted by fraudsters. We’ve collated the data and put together this infographic, depicting statistics around habits, threats, issues and opinions split by gender and age groups. It makes some very interesting reading. (more…)

Swindlers impersonate Apple service that remotely accesses user desktops.

For years, scammers claiming that they’re “calling from Windows” have dialed up Microsoft customers and done their best to trick them into parting with their money or installing malicious wares. Now, the swindlers are turning their sights on Mac users.

Researchers at antivirus provider Malwarebytes spotted a Web-based campaign that attempts to trick OS X and iOS users into thinking there’s something wrong with their devices. The ruse starts with a pop-up window that’s designed to look like an official OS notification. “Critical Security Warning!” it says. “Your Device (iPad, iPod, iPhone) is infected with a malicious adward [sic] attack.” It goes on to provide a phone number people can call to receive tech support.

Read the full article: Ars Technica 21 October 2015

One in five victims of cybercrime think they were specifically targeted by fraudsters.

• Only 38% of victims of cybercrimes think it was down to bad luck
• Over a third of victims felt vulnerable following the attack
• UK public lost £286 million to cybercrimes in the last 12 months
• ‘It’s Always Personal’ theme for Get Safe Online Week 2015

(more…)

1. Don’t publish your date of birth in your profile or highlight your birthday in posts or tweets. Why not? Your date of birth is very useful information for a fraudster, hacker or identity thief.

2. Remember that if you use the names of pets, family members, a sports team or other ‘favourite’ things in your passwords or memorable words, and reveal your likes and dislikes online, you may be handing a criminal clues to your login details.

3. Don’t reveal your passport number, driving licence number or any other official details to anyone unless you’re absolutely sure that they are authentic, and that providing these details is necessary. For example, if a prospective employer or agency asks you for a passport scan as proof

of ability to work in the UK, check their authenticity.

4. Don’t get fooled into revealing your PINs or passwords in response to an email, social networking post, text or phone call, however convincing it seems that the request is from your bank, the police or another real organisation.

5. Don’t write down or store login details electronically or on paper, where there’s a chance they could be found.

6. Never open an email attachment unless you’re 100% certain of who sent it, or what it is. This is because it could contain a virus that steals your personal information. Even an email that seems to come from a friend or colleague could have been sent by a virus on their device. If in doubt, ask the person you believe sent it before opening anything

We’ll be following Get Safe Online this week and sharing advice here and on our Facebook page.