£28 million lost by cyber crime victims

Ways To Spot And Avoid Cyber Frauds

The most common types of cyber crimes reported are phishing and hacking email accounts. The criminals target audiences who can divulge personal details and send money for the virtual calls made by them. 

However, in reality, the scammers are the ones who may never come in contact with the victim and are often based overseas. In addition, they use multiple schemes like a bogus vaccine project, donations to charities, or impersonate regulatory agencies to extract money.

How To Protect Yourself?

• Ensure your computer is set for security updates to help protect it from viruses and hackers.

• Also, use a strong and different password for messaging. Finally, login, use two-step authentication methods to keep your account safe and install apps to auto-update systems.

• In case of any doubt, consult experts or talk to regulatory agencies about ways to protect small businesses and individuals from such scams.

• Avoid posting private messages on public messaging platforms. Criminals target social media users to hack individual details and seek financial favours in exchange for the information. 

• In addition, they can use explicit details for identity theft. Consequently, it is important to keep a strong password for the mailing accounts and avoid disclosing private or financial information on social platforms. 

• Do not respond to calls that ask you to click on the links and proceed in a specific manner to make payments. Always seek verified and trusted sources for sending or receiving messages. If you suspect a crime, report it to the local law enforcement agencies.

• Fraudsters target buyers who continue to shop at unsecured sites. For example, some place orders on Facebook or Instagram, and when the items arrive, they find it is a bogus product and may find that all the reviews about the products are fake.

Some get text messages from a courier delivery firm asking the recipient to pay an admin fee to get their courier, or they send missed calls that are expensive to call back. In addition, they ask the victim to join fake competitions to earn prizes.

In most investment scams, people felt they were buying in genuine projects that would fetch them lucrative long-term returns. 

Such offers may be made on a dating platform where unsuspecting victims are contacted by someone who indulges in typical conversation to build trust and then changes the topic and asks the victim to invest in a scheme or crypto assets to earn. 

They may be asked to discuss the projects on other platforms – that are not safe, intending to deceive them into transferring funds on multiple occasions. In such cases, those who send money to such sites may not get access to their account. 

They may be told they cannot access without paying charges like transaction fees and the currency conversion cost of the security amount. Therefore, one should avoid such transfers into another individual's account, no matter how long you have spoken to them.

Always conduct independent research about the offers made online and ensure that it is genuine before trusting anyone. Be careful of the calls you get out of the blue involving a financial decision. Use encrypted passwords and a proper security system that rejects insecure, unsolicited requests in your machine.