More people in Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire fall victim to cyber crime
The number of people and businesses being targeted by online criminals has increased by around 20%.
There's been around a 20% increase in the number of people and businesses in Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire being targeted by cyber criminals.
Humberside Police have told Viking that they are now investigating up to 200 reports of cyber-related fraud every month - that's around a 20% increase compared to this time last year.
But with 90% of all cyber crimes preventable - a new scheme has been launched to help tackle the problem in our region.
The Humber Business Resilience Forum will educate companies about what they can do to prevent falling victim.
Detective Inspector Rich Osgerby is from the force and told Viking:
"“It is believed that 90 per cent of all cyber crime can be prevented by taking simple steps to improve security. The HBRF will provide a fantastic way of helping us to educate businesses of all sizes about how they can best do this.
“Coupled with the force’s partnership with get Safe Online – which provides up to the minute advice about the latest emerging threats – this will be another great tool in helping us to reduce the threat of cyber crime in the Humber region.”
Rory Clarke is from Rix Petroleums which was almost conned out of £750,000 by online fraudsters. He told us:
"“Rix is of the size and profile where we get targeted in a number of ways.
“Like most businesses, we are targeted via spam emails, spear phishing, fake invoices and the like. We get them all on a regular basis but, due to us having good processes in place, we have remained safe and not lost any money.
“Sometimes we see more sophisticated, cyber enabled fraud – such as this most recent incident – whereby fraudsters spend time researching the business in order to pose as people from within the organisation to have phones diverted and payments authorised through our banking partners.
“Fortunately, our security measures and processes that we have in place – as well as the good relationships we have built up with our bank and communications provider - meant that we picked up on it, but others have not and have lost significant amounts money.
“This is why we are supporting the HBRF. The whole purpose of the forum is to allow businesses to get access to expert knowledge of the latest scams and how they can protect themselves from them, as well as sharing knowledge with their peers in other local organisations.”