Cyber criminals are using increasingly sophisticated methods to deceive customers with a fourfold increase in scams being reported in recent months.
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00:00Yeah.
00:01During the festive period, we're seeing a fourfold increase in the amount of phishing
00:05scams.
00:06So in the last year alone, we've taken down over 14,000 websites, scam websites, and we're
00:11expecting this to increase significantly during this time.
00:15What are some of the more sophisticated techniques criminals are using to deceive online shoppers
00:19this year?
00:20So a lot of these tactics kind of have evolved over the years, mainly with the use of modern
00:25technology and AI.
00:27We're seeing that the remit and the span of these scam messages are increasing.
00:32But the guidance remains the same.
00:34We're seeing the same kind of three things to look out for, although they're getting
00:39more sophisticated.
00:40So the first one is personalization.
00:44So although the scam messages are evolving, they don't know who you are.
00:48So most of the scam messages don't have your name.
00:51So there's lack of personalization.
00:53The second is language.
00:55There's a sense of urgency in most scam messages, and there's a call to action from you.
01:00So that's another watch out for.
01:03Most of them still have really poor grammar and formatting.
01:07The last, which is the most important one, is links.
01:10If there's a link that is taking you to another website to input your information, look out
01:15for them, putting your email address with password, bank account detail.
01:21That's how they get to you, and that's how you lose your personal information.
01:24With a fourfold increase in scam incidents, how are you supporting victims of these scams
01:30and what recourse do people have, please?
01:32So the first thing we're doing is we're trying to take down these websites.
01:36So in the last six months, we've had 30,000 customers and the general public write to
01:40us about scam messages.
01:42We use that in order to take down websites.
01:45So we've taken down over 14,000 of these malicious websites.
01:49We work very closely with the UK government's National Cyber Security Centre because we
01:54share the vision of making UK the safest place to work and do business.