Britain's online safety campaign, Get Safe Online, today received blanket media coverage for its warning about an anti-virus scam that targets huge numbers of people across Britain. Criminals call people claiming their computers have a virus. They then persuade them to pay for and download software they say will remove the virus. But there's no virus - in reality, the victims are paying to infect their own computers with 'malware' that enables the conmen to steal their financial details and even their identity.
Get Safe Online's managing director Tony Neate took to the airwaves early today to explain the scam to Radio 5 Live Breakfast's Shelagh Fogarty and BBC Radio 4 Today's John Humphrys (amongst others). And I was pleased to play my part, spreading the word on radio stations from Cumbria to Jersey, and from Cornwall to Lincolnshire. (PayPal is a long-standing sponsor of Get Safe Online.)
Many of the interviewers I spoke to reported that they or their friends had received such calls, underlying the extent of the problem.
Ironically, this con takes advantage of our growing awareness of the need to protect our computers against viruses. The fraudsters claim to be working with well known IT companies. Yet almost 90% of us now have anti-virus software on our PCs, making it much less likely that we'll fall victim to a virus.
The scam isn't a new one: the Guardian's Charles Arthur was one of the first journalists to highlight the issue, along with Computer Active's Dinah Greek. Get Safe Online was concerned enough to campaign against the scam during its high profile Get Safe Online Week. Its research suggests that almost a quarter of UK internet users have had one of these calls. We hope that Britain's computer users are now on alert to defeat the conmen.
Note: Get Safe Online is a joint initiative between the Government, law enforcement, leading businesses and the public sector. Its aim is to provide computer users and small businesses with free, independent, user-friendly advice that will allow them to use the internet confidently, safely and securely.
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