When are you most likely to suffer from Cyber Crime? Do Cyber Criminals share your details?

by Mark Townsend
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07 Aug, 2020
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Are you targeted for a reason?

The answer to the above question may come as a bit of surprise but it is immediately after you've already suffered an attack!!

I will begin by saying that I don't work directly in Cyber Security but as part of the roles I have previously fulfilled I regularly attended seminars where the speakers were former Cyber Criminals who were happy to discuss the methods they used. My job is primarily to ensure that a Computer is fully clean and safe to use after an attack but I do also learn the methods used by criminals as part of my work.

If you feel this article is not entirely relevant as you have not suffered an attack then you might want to read my previous article on avoiding telephone scams here or carry out some further research on scams. I am focusing here on a couple of examples of how criminals follow up after you have already been caught out and it is well worth having this knowledge in your armoury so you don't get caught twice in quick succession.

One example of a scam which most people will feel they know is that you receive an e-mail saying that your Direct Debit details for your TV Licence are out of date and need to be updated in order for a successful renewal to take place. The e-mail may even say your original payment has already bounced but this is a risky strategy as you can check this. It is uncanny how these e-mails tend to arrive around the time of your renewal but that's another story!! Anyway, you will see a link to click to update your details and once clicked you will see a site which looks like the TV licencing website and you may well be tempted to enter your bank details. The obvious advice so far is NOT to click the link or enter any details but carry out checks yourself with TV licensing but for the purpose of this article let us assume you have provided the details as requested.

The next thing that will happen is that a small amount will disappear from your bank account - usually the value of a TV Licence. There is no point a Cyber Criminal attempting a Direct Debit for £10,000 because no Direct Debits are for that amount and if you only have £500 in your account it will simply bounce, raise suspicion at the bank and he ends up with nothing. In the hours and days that follow you will realise your mistake, either because two payments go out (the real one as well) or you just suddenly sense that something is wrong. At this point you typically contact the Bank and possibly even the Police to see if you can recover the money. The important thing here is your familiarity with the number of your Bank. In the past you would have called your local branch but now it's always Head Office and so the number is well known. You may know it already, you may have it programmed into your phone so that it says Lloyd's Bank (for instance) when somebody calls or you may just look it up. After speaking to the Bank and with their investigations under way you will suddenly get a call from the number you now know and trust as your Bank. The person on the other end will know all the details of your case and will suggest that with your account number and sort code now out there in the hands of criminals that you transfer your money to another account for safe keeping.

Many people are aware that you should never trust a call of this nature and should hang up and call the Bank back on another phone. Don't use the same phone because the Cyber Criminal will hang on the line and play a dial tone from his end so that you think he has hung up and you're making a fresh call. You then just get him back again. Many people are also aware that your Bank would never ask you to transfer money. Why would they? They can just open a new account for you with new details - no transfer by you needs to take place. However, people are caught off guard because the number that comes up tells them it is their Bank and the person on the line knows everything about the crime that has taken place - mainly because he did it!! At this stage if you do go ahead with the transfer then the entire contents of your bank account will fall into the hands of a criminal and don't forget he hasn't broken into your account and stolen it you have willingly transferred it to him. Whether you get the money back from the Bank is a matter for the Bank only and not the subject of this article.

Cyber Criminals are easily able to spoof telephone numbers and e-mail addresses in order to pretend to be somebody completely different. Please don't fall for this at a time when you have already been deceived once and may well still be shocked at the first offence.

The second case I am going to refer to could apply to any online purchase from a fake site but the one I come across most often relates to Bitcoin. Somebody starts researching the topic and jumps from site to site gathering information and eventually stumbles across a promising advert, makes a purchase and the money leaves your Bank account but you never receive any Bitcoin. In this instance the amount lost is often much greater than the TV Licencing scam above. In order not to repeat myself too much I will keep the following fairly brief. You obviously report the matter to the Police who do their best but tracking down thefts involved with Crypto Currency like Bitcoin is a thankless task for them. After a number of days you will receive a call either from a Detective or an Agency who are involved with recovering money from this type of scam. As above they know all the details of the case, they will tell you the criminals have been caught and they have recovered some of your money. However, due to costs etc there is a release fee for the money and that needs to be paid first. It sounds obvious but don't pay it in the hope you will get some money back as you'll just lose more. If the caller was genuine there would be no fee or if there was one he could deduct it from what he is returning to you. There is also a reason why they have only recovered part of the money; if you pay up then they call a few weeks later saying they have recovered some more which requires another fee and with an apology as to why the first payment hasn't arrived yet. This will run and run until they realise they aren't going to get any more money out of you.

To finish the article I am going to answer the second question and YES Criminals do share your details with other Criminals. Once they feel they have extracted all the money they can from you they are happy to place your details on a list so that you can be targeted by other Criminals using a different method of attack. This means that even if you don't suffer a follow up attack you are still highly likely to be targeted by other Criminals in the future.

As mentioned above my job is not investigating Cyber Crime but as the owner of a Computer Repair Business I am heavily involved with cleaning up Computers after an attack has taken place. If you have been attacked or feel that your Computer would benefit from being checked out and cleaned up then call Mark on 07557 483438, e-mail mark@churchdowncomputers.co.uk or fill out the form at the bottom of the Contact page.