As soon as the Television Channels decided to end free TV licenses for those who are above 75 in Britain, it seems to have become a hacking bonanza to fraudsters who are seen targeting senior to super senior citizens with several cyber scam campaigns
The situation became a hell for the elderly during lock-down as they were in a confusion on whom to contact if they became a victim to a banking scam fraudulently.
Regarding what is said above, some elderly people living in Britain mainly in suburbs reportedly received scam letters, emails and text messages asking them to pay up for TV licenses that will expire by August 1st 2020. A few reported that they clicked on some links that took them to malevolent web pages asking them for banking credentials allowing them to pay £160 for the TV licenses- that was actually a banking fraud siphoning money from their respective accounts.
Note- From July last week, some TV channels have scrapped the free to watch tv licenses targeted towards those above 75 years in age as their cash registers dropped drastically during lock down for reasons. N
Charities, data privacy campaigners and some politicians are against this move devised by the Television channels as it can make the pensioners to cyber scams like phishing campaigns.
Action Fraud, a website meant to report Cybercrime and fraud in Britain has revealed that fraud cases have soared by 38% as the accounted figures say that over 1,117 fraud cases were reported between April and June this year against all ages- up by 700 at the same time in 2019.
Also, the cyber crime watchdog stated that over 3,375 TV license scams were reported between April- June 2020- registering an estimated £3.3 million loss to elderly. Of these, over 1800 were reportedly aged between 70-99 years in age says the figure that still has to be verified on an official note.
