New research by Which? has revealed the top five email scams to be aware of this year. Bank scams, Paypal scams and tax rebate scams top the email phishing list in the survey of 2,016 adults carried out in January. Email inboxes are a valuable target for scammers with 54% of respondents claiming to have […]
Month: February 2015
Make fraud detection part of your company’s DNA
Fraud can hit your bottom line, hammer your reputation, and scare off customers. But it is possible to minimise the risks. More control and more automation is the best place to start. This is because the complicated transactional nature of travel leaves it open to fraud. There are deposits, payments, cancellations, refunds, taxes, discounts and […]
Banks are hit by largest cybercrime ever detected
The days of criminals putting a stocking over their face and stealing cash with a sawn-off shotgun over a bank counter, or masterminding events such as the Great Train Robbery, are largely over. In the 21st Century, there has been a rise of sophisticated fraudsters operating in gangs to steal large sums from behind their […]
Stamp out ticket crime
The Government was on Thursday night under mounting pressure to end its opposition to a new law that would help prevent fans buying tickets for this year’s Rugby World Cup and Ashes from being ripped off. The Rugby Football Union and England and Wales Cricket Board joined MPs and peers in urging ministers to back […]
Cybersecurity: Tackling the threat from within
For a long time, cybersecurity has been about defending the castle walls against intruders. The firewalls, anti-virus software, mail-filters and other digital defences used across the business world are generally looking for external threats. But what if the bad guys are on the inside? What if your own employees are seeking to defraud your company […]
Hotels hit by email scam – booking.com
A number of hotels in Europe have fallen victim to an email scam which captures commissions paid to Booking.com. The email scammers use a tried a tested method of creating a branded page to lure the recipients to send their monthly fees to the Priceline-owned Booking.com. Booking.com says the “incidences appear to be limited”, but […]
Hackers steal £650m
More than £650m has gone missing from banks around the world in what is thought to be the biggest ever ‘cybercrime’. Hackers are thought to have stolen £650m from bank accounts across the world in an extraordinary heist that may have cost British banks tens of millions of pounds. A gang of Russian-based hackers used […]
Travel Scams
Travelling is a lot of fun. It’s full of adventure and wonder. However, travellers always have to be on their toes when travelling, especially when travelling to different countries. Since tourists are usually targeted by scammers as easy targets, there are a few scams for which travellers should be on the lookout. Cheap Airline Tickets […]
Dating fraud increases by 33%
Online dating fraud has increased by a third in the last year at a cost of millions of pounds to the UK public, new figures show. The figures from the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) show a 33% increase in online dating fraud cases last year compared with 2013, with the cost up from £24.5 […]
Hill Dickinson and Europcar disrupt staged accident
Hill Dickinson’s Counter Fraud Group and Europcar, the car hire services company, have successfully disrupted the activities of a staged accident fraudster. Following a court case centred on a staged collision between a family’s vehicle and a car hired from Europcar, Hill Dickinson’s fraud arm was able to identify suspicious activity carried out by Mark […]
1 billion data records stolen last year
New research suggests more than 1 billion data records were stolen from more than 1,500 individual data breaches last year. Data breaches were up by 49 percent, while the theft or loss of data records were up by 78 percent on the year prior. Banking giant JPMorgan Chase, and retailer Target were named two of […]
How hacking is improving the world
It is easy to think about hacking in an entirely negative way. When the major film studios Sony Pictures was brought to a standstill over the release of “The Interview,” it was hacking that was to blame. Even something with relatively little technical sophistication, such as the nude celebrity image scandal, was attributed to this […]
Hacker reveals how easy it is to steal credit cards
A new breed of digital pickpocket has been discovered lurking in stations and shopping centres. They come armed with technology that can effortlessly steal credit and debit card details without so much as touching your wallet. Standing just six inches (15cm) away, these criminals use radio-frequency identification (RFID) readers to harvest bank details in a […]
Spending on contactless cards trebles in just one year
Shoppers increased spending on contactless cards by 300 per cent in the past year, with ten contactless payment now made every second, new figures revealed. Total spend in 2014 was more than double that of all the previous six years combined, with annual spending reaching a record £2.32billion, the UK Cards Association said. The steep […]
Visa says new app will cut credit-card travel troubles
Fraud detection systems can lock accounts when people travel, but location-sensing smartphone software now can help approve a legitimate transaction. It’s a common problem for people who travel: you’re try to buy something far from home, but the credit card company won’t approve the transaction because it fears your card was stolen. New software running […]
Airlines to accept Bitcoins
UATP, the low cost payment network privately owned by the world’s airlines, has teamed up with Bitnet as a payment processing partner. This will allow UATP to offer its network of over 260 airlines the ability to accept bitcoin payments in a simplified manner. Ralph Kaiser, president and chief executive of UATP, said: “We are […]
Hackers cash in on data harvested
Small firms operating online need to be prepared for ‘unprecedented levels of attempted fraud’ this month, say payments experts. Payments business Worldpay claims instances of fraud could rocket by as much as 80 per cent in February as hackers capitalise on customer data harvested during the Christmas shopping period. Tim Lansdale, head of payment security […]
Bolton man charged over Hajj holiday fraud
A man has been charged over the false advertisement and sale of £3,000 Hajj package holidays on a TV channel. Mudassir Shaheen, 37, of Green Lane in Bolton, Greater Manchester, is charged with 11 counts of money laundering. It follows a police probe into claims 11 Muslim families who bought the holidays, which included a […]
US to Create New Federal Cybersecurity Agency
The United States is creating a new cybersecurity agency to sniff out cyber-threats and centralize threat intelligence for use by existing federal agencies. The White House counter-terrorism coordinator, Lisa Monaco, will officially announce the new center. While the National Security Agency, Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the CIA all have cyber practices and […]
M-commerce Fraud
Mobile e-commerce is still a nascent space, but growing fast: More than 200 million devices worldwide are now making regular purchases through mobile browsers and mobile applications. That offers a vast new playground for fraudsters, who will look to take advantage of immature security approaches in the space. According to a mobile commerce study by […]