Category: information

October 26, 2016

Fraud and Cybercrime 2016

Get Safe Online and the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau have released fraud and cybercrime figures for 2016.

These show that £10.9 billion was lost to the UK economy as a result of fraud in 2016. This figure rises every year.

The estimate for the average cost for each person defrauded is around £520, but in some cases it is very large sums of money.

The figures show that 39% of people defrauded do not report the crime so the official fraud figures are lower than the reality.

The report also shows that many people do not follow basic security e.g. updating their anti-virus software regularly, using different passwords for separate accounts, being careful with the information they post on social media, only using secure Wi-Fi , deleting email from unknown sources etc.

We all need to take more care over basic online security.

There is a summary of the report at

https://www.getsafeonline.org/news/fraud-cybercrime-cost-uk-nearly-11bn-in-past-year/

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(the guy in the photo looks a bit like Reddington in The Blacklist but I don’t think it’s him)

There’s a very useful article on privacy at www.cloudwards.net/online-privacy-guide/

October 19, 2016

Website: Friends Against Scams

The website is www.friendsagainstscams.org.uk/ and it has been created by National Trading Standards.

Their byline is

Friends Against Scams Will Start Taking Action Now Deliver the Message Against Scams.

The highlight on the letters S T A N D gives the word and you can get the phrase Stand Against Scams from this – very clever.

The introduction on the website states their reason for creating the website as follows

Friends against Scams is a National Trading Standards Scams Team initiative, which aims to protect and prevent people from becoming victims of scams by empowering communities to “Take a Stand Against Scams”.

It goes on to explain that the lack of awareness of scams is allowing a lot of scammers to get away with their criminality and Friends Against Scams encourages communities and organisations to take action.

There is a lot of useful content on the website but the starting point is a short video about scams and the damage they cause. Well worth watching. One statistic that stands out is that although anyone of any age can fall victim to a scam, the average age of those scammed is 75. They target the most vulnerable.

Friends Against Scams is also active on Twitter at @AgainstScams

This is a great new development in the fight against scammers and hopefully it will build to a huge public campaign. The more people understand what the scammers do then the more we can protect everyone against them.

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October 13, 2016

Warning: We have Your Private Information

The Internet Crime Complaint Centre in America receives a lot of reports from individuals who have received extortion attempts via e-mail related to recent high-profile data thefts. The recipients are told that personal information, such as their name, phone number, address, credit card information, and other personal details, will be released to the recipient’s social media contacts, family, and friends if a ransom is not paid. The recipient is instructed to pay in Bitcoin, a virtual currency that provides a high degree of anonymity to the transactions. The recipients are typically given a short deadline. The ransom amount ranges from 2 to 5 bitcoins (up to £1,000). This problem is not confined to just America.

The following are some examples of the extortion e-mails:

“Unfortunately your data was leaked in a recent corporate hack and I now have your information. I have also used your user profile to find your social media accounts. Using this I can now message all of your friends and family members.”

“If you would like to prevent me from sharing this information with your friends and family members (and perhaps even your employers too) then you need to send the specified bitcoin payment to the following address.”

“If you think this amount is too high, consider how expensive a divorce lawyer is. If you are already divorced then I suggest you think about how this information may impact any ongoing court proceedings. If you are no longer in a committed relationship then think about how this information may affect your social standing amongst family and friends.”

“We have access to your Facebook page as well. If you would like to prevent me from sharing this dirt with all of your friends, family members, and spouse, then you need to send exactly 5 bitcoins to the following address.”

Fraudsters quickly use the news release of a high-profile data breach to initiate an extortion campaign. In many cases, the extortionists don’t have access to your confidential information – but in some cases they do.

TIPS TO PROTECT YOURSELF:

Use strong passwords i.e. ones that are difficult to guess or to crack
Use multiple passwords rather than one for everything.
Do not open e-mail or attachments from unknown individuals.
Monitor your bank account statements regularly, as well and as your credit report at least once a year for any fraudulent activity.
Do not respond to unsolicited emails.
Do not store sensitive or embarrassing photos of yourself online or on your mobile devices.
Never provide personal information of any sort via e-mail. Be aware, many e-mails requesting your personal information appear to be legitimate.
Ensure security settings for social media accounts are turned on and set at the highest level of protection.
When providing personally identifiable information, credit card information, or other sensitive information to a website, ensure the transmission is secure by verifying the URL prefix includes https, or the status bar displays a “lock” icon.

October 12, 2016

Scamwarners Website

www.scamwarners.com website says it is an Anti-Scam & Internet Anti-Fraud Information Centre.

It’s mission is described as :-

Increase awareness of internet scams
Identify individuals or groups who may be vulnerable to scams
Provide accurate and reliable information to victims and potential victims
Advise and support those who have been scammed
Warn people about fraud on the internet
Help people protect themselves against scammers
Be the ‘go to’ website for Internet Scam Information

It is set-up as a forum for people to share their experiences over scammers and seek advice from other people who’ve been scammed and from experts who know how to deal with scams.

Scamwarners has a Twitter presence which seems to have been active up to 2014 then no more updates. That is strange as more and more people use Twitter these days to keep up to date. Scamwarners Facebook link is to a forum posting rather than to Facebook. It’s link to Google+ shows content ended in 2015. But It does have a link to anti scam content on Pinterest.

Perhaps they found a social media presence didn’t really help and went back to concentrating on their forum which is quite active.

There is a lot of content in the forum and people offer help and advice to those who’ve been scammed, but in some sections the content is years old.

The website is worth a look if you want to see if a particular scam letter or email is present or if you want to ask for help on a specific scam.

Do leave a comment on this post – click on the post title then scroll down to leave your comment

October 7, 2016

Support Which Magazine’s Super Complaint to the Payment Regulator

Which Magazine is using its legal powers to make a super-complaint to the Payment Systems Regulator. They are calling on them to ensure banks better protect customers who are tricked into transferring money to a fraudster.

They want victims of bank transfer scams to have a legal right to get their money back.

The regulator has 90 days (which runs out in December) to respond to their super-complaint.

WHY ARE THEY DOING THIS?

For example, Stuart and Angie lost thousands of pounds when they had some building work done in their garden. Once the work was finished, they were sent an invoice from the builders – or so they thought. It was actually a ruthless scammer who hacked their email and faked an invoice tricking them to transfer the cash into the fraudster’s account.

Stuart and Angie have no legal right to get their money back from their bank and have lost over £8,000. Unlike credit or debit card fraud, banks haven’t developed sufficient security checks for bank transfers.

The super-complaint wants to ensure that banks do more to protect customers who are tricked into transferring money to a fraudster.

With victims losing life-changing amounts of money to this type of scam, they need your support,

so please support their super-complaint today.

They’re using their legal powers to launch an official super-complaint targeting the financial regulators. Banks must do more to protect customers who are tricked into transferring money to a scammer.

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September 28, 2016

The Psychology of Scammers

There is a lot of evidence about scammers and how they operate.

There are scammers that operate a number of different scams but many seem to find one that works for them then stick to it.

The many Nigerian 419 scammers are an example of sticking to the same game plan. They tempt people with a very large sum of money – usually in the millions and tell a highly improbably story of why the money is available. But with such a large amount of money as the enticement then for many people that overcomes their disbelief and they pay the advance fee which might be called a processing fee or release fee or Police charge or whatever. The scammer gets the advance fee and of course the large amount of money does not exist.

Most people know of theses scams, so why do the scammers stick to it instead of changing?

They enjoy the challenge, they stick to what they know, why change your plan when you can make the current one work? There are always more people to scam.

There are financial scams so complex that even few experts can understand how they work and at the other end of the spectrum are the incredibly simple scams such as sending out spam emails saying in a lot more words

“We have a large sum of money in your name and will be happy to send this too you once we verify your identity. Please provide a photograph of your passport or driving licence, your full name and address and contact details”

Some people will answer this with the information which the scammer can then sell on to other scammers.

Are the scammers motivated just by money?

No, many do chase the money, but for a lot it’s more about the game – winning, showing superiority over the victims who fall for the scams, the badge of honour of taking money from people and giving nothing in return. For some its excitement – getting away with illegal activities and not getting caught. For some, it’s all they know to do.

Many scam messages are childishly inept – poor grammar, spelling mistakes, odd use of words, poor quality layout etc. For some this may be genuine mistakes .e.g a poor translation from another language but often it is deliberate. The scammers often don’t want to catch people who will realise it’s a scam – they want the most believing and easily conned hence the mistakes to put off anyone who stops to think about the likelihood of the story being true. In this case, implausibility is the scammer’s friend.

Finally, if you get a cold caller trying to scam you, you won’t be able to talk them out of it and you won’t be able to shame them out if it. Scammers make a clear decision to con people out of money and that’s what they stick to.

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