Covid Fraud: £34.5m Stolen In Pandemic Scams March 24, 2021 Zak McKracken Dan Simmons & Matt Quinton – BBC Click UK authorities have reported more than 6,000 Covid-related fraud and cyber-crime cases during the pandemic. <span><span></span></span> <p>The Action Fraud team said £34.5m had been stolen since 1 March 2020.</p> <p>It covers activity in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, but not Scotland.</p> <p>In a related development, the National Cyber Security Centre has told the BBC it is tackling about 30 “significant attacks” a month against the country’s <a href="/category/dont-miss/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">pandemic</a> response infrastructure.</p> <p>These involve attempts to breach the NHS, vaccine producers, and vaccine supply chains, among other organizations.</p> <p>“There, unfortunately, have been a number of successful <a href="/category/scams-and-scandals/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ransomware</a> incidents against businesses – I can think of roughly around 10,” NCSC operations director Paul Chichester said.</p> <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"> <noscript></noscript> </figure> <p>image caption this is one of the scripts used to con victims to believe they were talking to their bank</p> <h3>Twin Peaks</h3> <p>Other figures disclosed by the City of London Police, which coordinates efforts to combat fraud, include:</p> <ul> <li>more than 150 related arrests were made since the pandemic began</li> <li>more than 2,000 websites, phone numbers, and email addresses linked to the crimes were taken down</li> <li>there was a total of 416,000 reports of fraud and cyber-crime</li> </ul> <p>The activity peaked between April and May 2020 and January 2021 – both times when lockdowns were in force.</p> <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"> <noscript></noscript> </figure> <p>But this may be the tip of the iceberg.</p> <p>The National Crime Agency estimates that just one in five fraud cases are typically reported to the police.</p> <p>And the volunteer-run Cyber Helpline told the BBC only a quarter of those who had contacted it after a cyber-attack said they had also reported the incident to the police.</p> <h3>Bank Loan Scam</h3> <p>Many of the scams involved conning people out of their money and financial details by focusing on the internet shopping.</p> <p>Related fraud was 42% higher over the pandemic than the preceding year, as criminals took advantage of many physical stores that had been forced to close.</p> <p>Anna – not her real name – from Cheltenham was one of the thousands of people who received an SMS message asking her to go online and rearrange a parcel delivery.</p> <p>She filled in her details but later suspected something was wrong. She alerted her bank and canceled her bank card.</p> <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"> <noscript></noscript> </figure> <p>image caption Anne came close to being thousands of pounds out of pocket</p> <p>“I thought, now I have nothing to worry about, everything is fine and case closed,” she told the BBC.</p> <p>But the criminals used the details they had already obtained to authorize her bank to credit her account with a £9,000 loan.</p> <p>And a short while later, they called her, pretending to be the bank.</p> <p>Not realizing the scam, Anna told them she had not taken out a loan.</p> <p>“They gave me the sort code and bank account number I needed to pay back the loan and said if I paid the £9,000, there wouldn’t be any charges.</p> <p>“But then I was still feeling suspicious, so I Googled the sort code, and it came up with a completely different bank.”</p> <p>So, Anna called her bank directly and realized the scammers had returned.</p> <p>“I didn’t lose any money but it did feel like a real burglary to be honest,” she said.</p> <p>She closed her account and changed her email address and mobile number. But she still does not feel safe.</p> <h3>Email Attack</h3> <p>Charities are also common targets.</p> <p>According to Ecclesiastical Insurance, one in three charities suffered a cyber-attack during the first ten months of the pandemic.</p> <p>One victim specializes in offering cyber-security advice to others.</p> <p>Hackers got inside Charity Digital’s network for seven days without being detected. They compromised their email accounts and sent false invoices to clients.</p> <p>The organization’s chief executive, Jonathan Chevallie, told the BBC the breach had not been noticed in part because all his staff had been working from home.</p> <p>Charity Digital spent more than £10,000 investigating the attack and has produced an online webinar to help others avoid a similar fate.</p> <h3>Fake Tech Support</h3> <p>Another popular type of cyber-fraud involved romance scams. People looking for relationships via the net often get fooled into sending money to prospective partners, who prey on their emotions.</p> <p>This type of crime was 20% more common over the past year than the one before.</p> <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"> <noscript></noscript> </figure> <p>image captionFraudsters sometimes use “Sim farms” to send texts – this unit holds eight cards to send multiple messages at once quickly</p> <p>The city of London Police also said vital workers had also been specifically targeted.</p> <p>In one case, a man was arrested on suspicion of using social media to advertise bogus car insurance policies to NHS workers.</p> <p>The <a href="/category/hot-updates/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">pandemic</a> appears, however, to have coincided with a fall in one type of <a href="/category/scams-and-scandals/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cyber-crime</a>.</p> <h5>Reported computer software service fraud cases – in which criminals call offering fake tech support to fool victims into sharing their payment card details and other credentials – dropped by 15.5%.</h5> <hr class="wp-block-separator" id="block-8a6b775d-3444-43f6-b02c-823e3fdad331"> <p id="block-85aab063-75b9-4cf5-a22f-a3b914e27883"><em>To receive the latest breaking Crypto News delivered to you, join Cryptonetwork.News</em> <strong>Telegram Channel here</strong></p> <div class="sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled"> <div class="robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-official sd-sharing"> <h3 class="sd-title">Share this:</h3> <div class="sd-content"> <ul> <li class="share-twitter">Tweet</li> <li class="share-facebook"> <div class="fb-share-button" data-href="/covid-fraud-34-5m-stolen-in-pandemic-scams/" data-layout="button_count"></div> </li> <li> <a href="#" class="sharing-anchor sd-button share-more"><span>More</span></a> </li> <li class="share-end"></li> </ul> <div class="sharing-hidden"> <div class="inner" style="display: none;width:150px;"> <ul style="background-image:none;"> <li class="share-telegram"> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-telegram sd-button" href="/covid-fraud-34-5m-stolen-in-pandemic-scams/?share=telegram" target="_blank" title="Click to share on Telegram"><span>Telegram</span></a> </li> <li class="share-end"></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div id='jp-relatedposts' class='jp-relatedposts'> <h3 class="jp-relatedposts-headline"><em>Related</em></h3> </div> PREV POST Thai's Deputy Prime Minister R.. 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