Cybercrime is a fast-growing area of crime. More and more fraudsters are exploiting the speed, convenience and anonymity of the Internet to commit a diverse range of criminal activities that know no borders, either physical or virtual. You must be vigilant and keep information as secure as possible. There are several well-known types of threat:-
Phishing
This is where a fraudster sends out emails at random often purporting to come from a genuine company operating on the Internet. Such emails usually claim the need for you to update or verify customer information via a link to a bogus website. This may then result in you giving up sensitive information. Because phishing is random it relies on chance and sometimes you might receive such an email purporting to come from a company you know which could reduce your suspicion. It is highly unlikely that any company will send you an email asking for sensitive information.
Vishing
This involves a fraudster telephoning and claiming to be from your bank. If this happens they may already have obtained details about some of your transactions and may, therefore, sound genuine. The bank will never telephone and ask for information that would allow access to your bank account. If any attempt is made you should report it to your bank.
Trojan
This is a type of computer virus that can be installed on your computer without you realising. It is often installed after you have clicked a link in an email to a malicious website. Such emails will often contain a seemingly harmless subject such as a joke, greetings card or a current ‘hot’ topic. The Trojan can then potentially control what appears on your screen and may, therefore, trick you into disclosing confidential information. You should treat all emails as potentially malicious. If you receive an email with an unexpected attachment then treat it with suspicion until the sender can confirm that they have sent you the attachment. If such an attachment is opened and contains anything that is unexpected then your computer should be checked.
Spyware
This is software that could be installed on your computer via a Trojan or even as part of another application in order to monitor activity on your machine and report back to the fraudster. This type of software enables your keyboard activity to be monitored by which sensitive information could be obtained.
The general approach should be, therefore, to be careful about what you disclose over the telephone. Merely because somebody calls you and seems to know about you it does not mean that they are genuine. Also be careful about what attachments you open. You need to be confident that they are genuine attachments before they are opened. If in doubt don’t open it.