A new warning has been released by experts and anyone with email or social media accounts would be wise to follow new advice.
Everyone with an email account or those who spend endless hours glued to social media must be on high alert and make some simple changes without delay. It seems cyber crooks continue to target these services daily with attacks growing at an alarming rate. According to new data from the team at Action Fraud, there were a total of 35,434 reports made to its online service in 2024 that’s up from 22,530 the year before.
To make things even more concerning, it’s thought that nearly £1m was handed over to hackers in the past year alone via consumers falling for online scams.
To avoid losing more money to thieves, Action Fraud is now urging those with online accounts to make some urgent changes to avoid this ‘critical’ issue.
“As social media and email account hacking remains the most reported cybercrime this year, this Action Fraud campaign marks a critical issue for everyone who has online accounts. That’s why we’re raising awareness of the ways people can protect themselves online,” explained Adam Mercer, Deputy Director of Action Fraud.
There appear to be two main threats that are causing concern. The first is when a fraudster gains control of an account and begins to impersonate the legitimate owner. This can lead to friends and family being conned into handing money over to the crooks – the infamous “hi mum” scam is a good example of how this attack works.
The other common method of hacking is when account details are gained via phishing scams, or the use of leaked information used from data breaches, such as leaked passwords. This can give scammers instant access to email accounts which can then be used to steal data.
To avoid being the next victim, it’s vital that users turn on 2-step verification which means accounts can’t accessed until a code is sent to a separate device.
It’s also important to check email accounts have a unique password that is different from all other accounts and make sure it’s also harder to crack.
For example, if your Gmail password is a name such as “liverpool”, add some extra characters and capital letters to make it more secure. So instead of “liverpool” simply switch it to “L1ver_Po@l”.
“Follow Stop! Think Fraud advice and protect yourself online: enable 2-Step Verification on each online account you have – this will help prove your identity and stop fraudsters trying to steal or access your valuable information. Secure your social media and email accounts by ensuring each password is strong and uses three random words. Remember to never share your passwords with anyone else,” added Mercer.
The latest warning is also being backed by the team at Meta who own services such as Facebook and Instagram.
“Scammers are relentless and continuously evolving their tactics to try and evade detection, which is why we’re constantly working on new ways to keep people safe while keeping bad actors out. Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) is one crucial example of how people can add an extra layer of security to their Meta accounts, to help reduce the risk of scammers accessing your accounts. We’ve also started rolling out facial recognition technology to help people get back into compromised or hacked accounts and are always working on new ways to stay ahead of scammers.”
Don’t forget, if you spot any strange emails then simply send them to [email protected]. This could help block more people from being targeted.