Agenda item

PC Tom Lee from MPS Cyber Crime unit will be speaking about online fraud, cyber crime, and how to stay safe online.

PC Tom Lee, from Cyber Unit went through a presentation and highlighted the following:

·         The Cyber crime unit has 200 staff; 190 working in pursuit and 10 working in prevention. They work to design out fraud enablers and to raise awareness.

·         From June 2018-2019 looking at crime figures they were 4.8 million crimes of cybercrime(1m) and fraud (3.8m) against 6.3 million of all other crime types.

·         In the UK you are 20 times more likely to be defrauded than robbed. If you are over 65 years old, you are more likely 3 times more likely to be defrauded than burgled.

·         Action Fraud is the national reporting line for all fraud and cyber crimes to be reported either online at www.actionfraud.police.uk or by telephone on 0300 123 2040.

·         In Enfield for 2018-19 there were 1680 reported crimes to Action Fraud total £5,912,345 with victims losing on average £3,519. It should be noted however that these figures include businesses and have not been verified for anomalies or mistakes in reporting.

·         Monthly reports for Enfield will be provided in future, these figures will have been verified and will be sent out to SNB members through Susan O’Connell.

·         Fraud can be reduced by raising awareness of actions both individuals and businesses can take.

·         Fraudsters use social engineering methods:

1.    Spoofing (masquerading/ disguising by changing telephone no and email but purporting to come from a genuine source).

2.    Phising (fraudulent email)

3.    Smishing (fraudulent text)

4.    Vishing (fraudulent phone calls)

·         Examples were given of recent frauds such as emails from amazon, DVLC TV Licence and HMRC offering refunds and also in the case of HMRC demanding payment.

·         The link within these will go to a fake website which appears like the original. Any links should never be clicked on.

·         Any reference to unusual activity, requests for verification, issue with accounts, problems with routers are typical examples of information requested.

·         Smart phones are unable to separate genuine and fake calls and texts so will appear on phone in the same way they would had they come from the genuine originator.

·         The advice is always to question any requests, challenge all details and remember that phone numbers and emails are not proof of identity

·         Scam phone calls, the fraudsters may have been able to obtain some of your details beforehand, sound effects will also be used to add authenticity and you will often be put under pressure to provide details. These is all used to manipulate the intended victim.

·         The top 6 frauds in Enfield are:

1.    Advance Fee (involves payment in advance for goods, services and/or financial gains that do not materialise)

2.    Courier Fraud (involves fraudsters cold calling you pretending to be from the police or fraud department. They claim they are conducting an investigation or say your account is at risk)

3.    Software fraud (fraudsters cold call you claiming there are problems with your computer, and they can help you solve them)

4.    Investment fraud (fraudsters will persuade you to invest in all kinds of products. They will offer you high rates of return, particularly over longer periods of time, which often do not exist.

5.    Payment fraud (any fraud that involves falsely creating or diverting payments)

6.    Online shopping (fraudsters will advertise an item for sale, frequently at a bargain price. They may have picture, so it appears to be a genuine sale. They either do not have these goods or they are fake. Fraudsters will be insistent you pay by bank transfer instead of using a secure third-party service such as PayPal, android Pay or Apple Pay).

·         The 7 top tips to reduce Cyber crime are:

1.    Have a strong password

2.    Have an up to date virus protection (download updates as soon as they are available)

3.    Update software- install patches, most update are security related

4.    Back up your data regularly

5.    Do not click on links or open attachments (unless verified) in emails or texts

6.    Apple privacy settings in social media

7.    Avoid public Wi-Fi for personal use

·         Hashing is when your password is stolen, a computers programme is used to guess the password. Weak password can be cracked by one person in 5 minutes by a botnet (a collection of computers used by organised crime in 1 second and by a supercomputer is less than 1 second.

·         Very strong passwords should have a minimum of 12 characters, include numbers, capitalisation, characters and not be a word that it is in the dictionary. It was suggested that three words that mean something special to you are put together for this purpose, so they do not make a word. This type of password will take 3 years for a super computer to break down.

·         It is recommended that at least your email account has a different password and a very strong one as access to this allows all other passwords to be reset.

·         Turn on where available 2 layers of authentication, some sites may already have this. A website programme to do this can be found at www.turnon2fa.com

·         There is a site where you can enter your email to see if it has ever appeared in a breach www.haveibeenpwned.com. Should this advise that this is the case the password on the email should be changed immediately.

·         The 3 final points are :

1.    If something appears out of the blue say no thank you. Take 5 minutes to think about, ask other people, verify using a trusted method.

2.    Be cyber aware

3.    Tell2- this means tell 2 other people what you have learned from the presentation and encourage them to tell other people.

·         Leaflets on Big Scams, cyber scams, phone scams and cyber advice and eleven 2 minute videos (includes 5 on staying safe and 6 on fraud can be accessed via the following link www.met.police.uk/littlemedia

·         Reporting of fraud and further information can be accessed www.actionfraud.police.uk. This will also give details of known scams.

·         Should members have groups that they would like him to present at advice through please contact Susan O’Connell.

Tom was thanked for his presentation.