Scammers seem to be using COVID 19 situation to loot populace of Britain as the GCHQ Cyber Crime center ‘NCSC’ claims that over 2,386 people have fallen victim to Cybercriminals in the past two months and the number is said to surge up more in coming days.
According to UK Report Service ‘Action Fraud’ hackers are seen impersonating health officials as a way to cheat people and have succeeded in gaining £ 5.3 million through various scams- mainly phishing emails.
By posing as Revenue & Customs Officials and those related to the firms giving tax rebates to those financial suffering due to Corona spread, scamsters are seen daily mailing people and seen trapping them to mint money.
“Usually in such scams, cyber crooks are seen sending links to people which take them to fraudulent web pages where innocent victims are seen entering personal details including bank account numbers, contact details, and names- paving way for mightier banking scams”, said Micheal Trident of McAfee.
Other scams that were seen topping the charts were the ones related to the newly launched NHS Corona Virus Tracking app. Although the app usage is limited to a specific region in Britain, texts are being sent to a large section of the populace from central Britain who are made to believe that they have come in contact with a COVID 19 patient and so they need to share some vital info with the NHS by clicking on a link embedded below and registering themselves by entering some sensitive information.
McAfee researchers claim that ‘Catfishing’ was also seen topping the list of cyber scams in the lockdown period mostly targeting those super-active onto dating websites. In such scams, a fraudster is seen setting up a profile, meets a prospect, wins her/his trust, and then convinces them to hand over money in the name of a family/business emergency.
Jake Moore of ESET says that Catfishing scams often start with small financial requests and end up big- depending on the victim’s financial status.
Pension scams, Fake online donation, online shopping scams in the name of selling hand sanitizers, corona-virus test kits, and PPE kits in the name of Red Cross were also seen foxing the public of United Kingdom.
So, all those who have read this article, please be careful with your hard-earned money and savings as life never gives a second chance to earn the same once again.
