Online scammers speed up
There were over one million fraud attempts in the UK in the first six months of 2016, or one every 15 seconds – more than 50 per cent higher than the same period of last year.
Between January and June 2016 there were 1,007,094 fraud cases in the UK compared to 660,308 in the first six months of 2015. Each case represents a card or account attacked, not an individual person.
Financial Fraud Action UK figures include payment card, remote banking and good old fashioned cheque fraud losses.
Katy Worobec, FFA UK’s director, said:
“Last year, banks stopped £7 in £10 of attempted fraud from happening. But as the banks’ systems get more advanced, fraudsters turn their attention elsewhere and sadly this often means tricking people out of their personal details and money. …We are asking people to take five – to take that moment – to pause and think before they respond to any financial requests and share any personal or financial details.”
Once discovered the company took payment systems off the main network and disabled the malware.