Cyber crime robs Britons of £1billion in just a year

Cyber criminals have swiped more than £1billion from British bank accounts in just a year, it has been revealed.

Almost one in five adults say they have lost at least £500 after falling victim to online scams or from shopping on unsecure websites, government research shows.

Fake sites imitating popular brands like Amazon have been blamed for tricking consumers into revealing their card details, with thousands also falling victim to hackers who intercept retailers’ web pages.

‘It’s got progressively worse in the last few years. We’re now seeing about 30,000 websites getting infected every day,’ Sophos’s head of security research James Lyne told Metro.

Half of shoppers don’t routinely check if a website is secure before entering their bank account details, with 40 per cent of Britons saying they had experienced some form of online crime in the last year.

‘People can get lulled into a false sense of security with online shopping – you wouldn’t go into the middle of a busy shop and start shouting out what your Pin number is,’ Mr Lyne said.

The figures were released as the government launches its Cyber Streetwise campaign today to raise awareness and offer advice on how to avoid such criminality.

Sourse: metro.co.uk