Victims report losing more than £21 million in one year to Computer Software Service fraud

Computer Misuse Frauds Have Grown In The UK In The Last Five Years

A survey by ONS claims that computer misuse offences increased during the pandemic. The regulatory bodies offered guidelines to institutions to improve defences to protect remote workers during the pandemic from personal/individual security hacks. The data ending March 2021 found six such offences for every 1000 residents. 

There was an increase of 27 per cent in such cases, and online shopping and auctions reported the highest growth of 57 per cent. Financial investment frauds increased by 44 per cent.  

The crooks targeted victims during times of uncertainty through social engineering and phishing. Those who lost jobs during the lockdowns looked for job opportunities, and they were lured to click on emails offering appointments.  

Many fell for fraudulent Zoom invitations, and as they clicked, they lost their system data. One of the firms lost data as their system was hacked, and their machines started sending out multiple bogus invoices to pre-existing and new clients, and the client pulled out of the pre-planned investments due to the mistakes.  

The firms offering work-from-home options to their employees advise them to counter the threats while working as there is a heightened risk for cyber attacks. The attackers target a vulnerable group of people; tech-savvy experts in web-based services attack them. 

Therefore, regulatory bodies must raise awareness and boost resources to stop and investigate the crimes. 

Computer Repair Service Frauds

Victims reported computer repair service frauds where callers pretending to be representatives of reputable firms called the client and said their machine was no longer secure and required repair. 

They ask for access to the system using the client's password, and they download remotely unsafe apps into the device. The scammers tell the client their machine has been compromised (or hacked) by cyber–thieves through various methods, and the criminals were trying to access their banking details. 

They may download and install the app into the machine and seek payment for the repair or illegally withdraw funds from the account by gaining online account details. 

Some reported the attacker probed universities and businesses and attempted ransomware attacks on authorised systems to get paid to repair them. 

How To Protect Yourself?

Avoid callers who claim to be from a reputable software company and offer to repair your machine through remote services by telephone or text messages. 

Most reputable firms will not call and ask for their password to enter the machine through remote access to tell them their internet was down or seek immediate payment for the repair work. Do not provide any personal information to an unknown caller. 

• Please do not assume the phone number on the call is accurate, as it can be spoofed. Do not click on links offered or call the phone numbers provided by anonymous callers. Do not download any software from the internet on the instruction of a cold caller; always install virus protection to the system. 

• Microsoft and other reputed firms do not send messages related to unsolicited security updates in emails. They do not seek payment details (e.g. credit card information) to validate software copies. In addition, they do not ask for personal identification or social security number. 

• If you suspect fraud, change the password of your machine and modify the online banking details and credit cards stored in login details. 

• If you downloaded an unknown program, use the system restore function to roll back to the previous settings and use the security update function of the PC to get the default settings back. Then, scan the machine for malware and report the incident to the operating system provider.