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UK phishing attacks reach 8,000 reports monthly

Tuesday 15 March 2016 00:12 CET | News

Nearly 100,000 incidents of phishing attacks have been reported in the UK in 2015, a recent study shows.

The City of London police’s Action Fraud and the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau put the exact figure at 96,699 – which amounts to around 8,000 reports each month.

E-mail is the most popular channel via which cybercriminals are phishing their victims, accounting for over 68% of incidents.

This is compared to 12.5% who say they were contacted by phone and 9% who were contacted by text.

Scams are frequently seasonal, with bank and HMRC-related phishing particularly popular in December 2015.

Users were urged to remain vigilant online, especially when opening attachments or clicking on links in unsolicited emails or responding to emails asking for personal or financial details.

Rather than follow links to web pages, users should type in the web address of the site they want to visit directly, Action Fraud advised.


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Keywords: online fraud, online security, cyber security, fraud prevention, phishing attacks, UK
Categories: Fraud & Financial Crime
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Countries: World
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Fraud & Financial Crime






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