The Rise of Cyber Crime in the Pandemic Era
Even in the hard times of the pandemic, fraudsters are finding ways to hunt. In early 2020, when the coronavirus started to spread rapidly, a large increase in government expenditure became necessary at all levels of the global economy. In addition, digital transactions became normalized in all facets of daily life. This created an opportunity for scammers to pose as government entities in order to falsely offer funds to suspecting victims, or demand immediate payments of fines or taxes.
An analysis of over a billion online transactions by cyber security company Trend Micro found that the beginning of the pandemic was marked by a significant rise in spam messages, malware attacks and phishing emails. Banks and Government sectors have also had to expand their fraud and investigations units accordingly. According to the industry body UK Finance, British banks paid out £147m in 2020 reimbursing losses caused by “authorised” scams, where customers unwittingly make payments from their accounts to criminals via pre-authorized payments. Phone calls from scammers claiming to be taxmen have increased in the last year as well. Even top ranking government officials become confused about how to file their taxes oftentimes, and this lack of clarity in the current tax landscape has been exploited fully by scammers.
The spectacular growth of cyber-crime stands out as an unfortunate hallmark of the pandemic. In the US internet fraud has increased by 69% in the last year. Other kinds of internet crime like computer enabled spam phone calls and text messages are increasing as well. These kinds of efforts fuel a spam industry which rakes in billions of dollars each year. Over the past few years there has been a significant growth in "ransomware" as well. With ransomware attacks, hackers steal the victim's data, lock it up and demand a ransom to unlock the files or to prevent them from being leaked.
Hackers are now targeting large organizations to demand big money, and oftentimes payment in Bitcoin may be requested. The anonymous nature of the cryptocurrency wallet makes this fintech offering a useful tool for cyber criminals. Most cyber criminals work with/for each other without even knowing their real names and location. Their strength comes from their decentralization. Governments are now taking cyber crime seriously, and they will have to work very hard to find ways to tackle it in the future.
If you have been tricked and cannot think of a solution, contact us at info@borderlesscounsel.com, so we can assist you.