Interviews

Christmas fraud warning

by Mark Rowe

Young people are being approached by fraudsters on social media channels who offer too good to be true Christmas shopping deals. Last year more people than ever reported that they had been initially approached on Instagram with a 64 per cent increase compared to the year before, says Action Fraud.

Action Fraud reports from last Christmas showed that Items such as home electricals, mobile phones and jewellery were the most common items which fraudsters offered to victims.

City of London Police analyses Action Fraud reports and tries to prevent more people falling victim of fraud by requesting the suspension of the websites, bank accounts and phone lines that fraudsters use to commit their crimes. Last year 418 websites were disrupted by the team which was a 67pc increase on the year before. Phone lines used by fraudsters were also disrupted by the team with 93 being taken down during December.

City of London Police Commander Chris Greany, pictured, the National Co-ordinator for Economic Crime said: “Christmas is prime time for fraudsters to take advantage of the British public. During the festive season people rush to buy the presents they have been asking for, however fraudsters see this period of generosity as an opportunity to strike and steal money from unsuspecting victims.

“Our campaign is designed to give individuals up to date advice that will keep them one step ahead of the criminals that target UK shoppers from all over the globe. Everyone deserves a crime free Christmas so make sure it’s the criminals that are left short changed this festive period.”

For an infographic from credit checking agency Equifax visit https://www.equifax.co.uk/resources/identity-theft-fraud-infographic.html.

Meanwhile, the agency Experian has released its fourth annual Data Breach Industry Forecast white paper. While many companies have data breach preparedness on their radar, it takes constant vigilance to stay ahead of emerging threats and increasingly sophisticated cybercriminals, the firm says. Anticipated issues include nation-state cyberattacks possibly moving from espionage to full-scale cyber conflicts and new attacks targeting the healthcare industry.

Michael Bruemmer, vice president at Experian Data Breach Resolution, said: “Preparing for a data breach has become much more complex over the last few years. Organizations must keep an eye on the many new and constantly evolving threats and address these threats in their incident response plans. Data breach resources, including webinars, white papers and videos, can be found at http://www.experian.com/databreach. Read the Experian Data Breach blog at http://www.experian.com/dbblog.

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