£28 Million Lost by Cyber Crime Victims

The City of London Police, the national lead force for fraud which runs Action Fraud, the national fraud and cyber crime reporting centre, has revealed that cyber crime victims lost £28 million between October 2017 and March 2018. They have also revealed:

• Action Fraud sees 12,372 cyber crime reports in six months
• Hacking of social media and email accounts at the forefront of cyber crime impact.
• Protect yourself – use strong, separate passwords to avoid falling victim to hackers.

The cyber statistics are based on the 12,372 cyber crime reports that were made in the same six month period to Action Fraud. The City of London Police, which is a founding member of the Global Cyber Alliance, also runs Cyber Protect, its team dedicated to protecting the public and businesses from fraud and cyber crime.

The report also shows that with 4,796 reports, hacking of social media and email accounts was the primary reason for people reporting cyber crime to Action Fraud. These victims are believed to have lost a total of £11 million.

Unlike most other crimes, cyber crime is often committed by criminals who never come into contact with their victim, and around half of all fraud and cyber crime comes from abroad. A national reporting service means the UK can better identify investigate and detect fraud and cyber crime.

 Action Fraud The key to protecting yourself from cyber crime is to

1.   Always install the latest software and app updates on your phone and computers as they contain vital security updates which help protect your device from viruses and hackers.
2. You should also ensure that you use a strong, separate password for your email account, as hackers can use your email to access many of your other personal accounts.
3. Consider also enabling two factor authentication (also known as two step authentication or two step login) where services support it.

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