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Articles for Category Tag - Crime

Scam Alert UK Finger on Computer Keyboard Warning

Three UK Warn of SURGE in Mobile Scams Over Black Friday and XMas

8th November, 2024 (4 Comments)

Mobile operator Three UK has warned consumers to be extra cautious around the festive season due to a significant increase in fraudsters targeting mobile users. The operator noted how, at the same time last year, their network tracked a 300% increase in scams around Black Friday and a 500% uptick in fraud or SMS-based scams reported over Christmas.

Internet Danger Websites with Scam Ads and Malware

Virgin Media O2 Says UK Gov Must Get Serious with Tackling Fraud

4th November, 2024 (7 Comments)

Broadband ISP and mobile giant Virgin Media and O2, which invests millions in counter fraud measures each year and blocked more than £250m worth of fraud in 2023, has called on the UK Government to take “urgent action” to address the “epidemic” levels of fraud. The ISP is seeking stronger police powers and the appointment of a dedicated minister.

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Essex UK Gang Jailed for £1m Theft of Openreach Broadband Cables

1st November, 2024 (10 Comments)

The Essex Police, which had been investigating thefts of copper broadband and phone cables from Openreach (BT) across several counties in England, have announced that a gang of four men have been jailed for a combined total of 14 years. The men were responsible for stealing almost £1m worth of the operator’s telecoms cables.

Historic UK Fibre Tax Case Resurfaces After VOA Criminal Summonses UPDATE

25th October, 2024 (10 Comments)

A historic legal case, which challenged the fairness of the Government’s Valuation Office Agency (VOA) and how it was choosing to tax fibre optic broadband cables between different UK network operators, has reared its head again after several criminal summonses were issued for members of the VOA, HMRC and others for alleged “perjury and fraud“.

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Big Nottinghamshire Broadband Outage After Openreach Network Damaged UPDATE

14th October, 2024 (10 Comments)

Some 10,000 premises in Nottinghamshire (England) have suffered a disruption to their broadband and phone services after Openreach’s (BT) network was “maliciously damaged” by criminals. The details are currently unclear, although the fact that the operator has to replace around 700 metres of cable suggests copper theft may be the cause.

Three Men Arrested in N.Ireland for Theft of Openreach’s Broadband Cables

11th October, 2024 (1 Comment)

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), which have been investigating multiple thefts of copper broadband and phone cables from Openreach (BT) – said to be worth “six figures“, have just arrested three men (aged 36, 38 and 60) on suspicion of related theft and criminal damage.

Four Arrested Over Theft of Batteries from Broadband Cabinets in Kent UK

11th October, 2024 (14 Comments)

The Kent Police‘s Rural Task Force this week arrested four suspects – three men aged between 37 – 57 and a 14-year-old boy – in connection with the theft of batteries from “telecoms boxes” (i.e. street cabinets used by broadband providers) and a large number of cables from across the South East of England.

Network Rail’s Wi-Fi Suffers UK Outage at 19 Stations Due to Rogue Employee

27th September, 2024 (6 Comments)

The company that owns and manages most of the railway network in Great Britain, Network Rail, suffered a major service outage on their national Wi-Fi network this week, which began on Wednesday and impacted 19 stations. But it appears to have been caused by an “employee of Global Reach [who] corrupted the system“.

Internet and UK Telecoms Security Picture

BT Report HUGE Rise in Malicious IP Scanners Across UK Network

12th September, 2024 (4 Comments)

Telecoms and broadband ISP giant BT has today revealed that their UK network is logging 2,000 signals of potential cyber-attacks a second (200 million per day), while malicious scans of online (Internet Protocol) networks and devices have surged by over 1,234% in the last year alone.

Government Classifies UK Data Centres as Critical National Infrastructure

12th September, 2024 (13 Comments)

The Government’s Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT) has today announced that they’ve classed data centres – the buildings which store much of the networking and data generated in the UK – as Critical National Infrastructure (CNI). The move affords such sites greater protections, much like energy supply, water supply, transportation, health and telecoms (e.g. broadband and mobile).

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Hiya – Spam Phone Calls Declined in the UK During H1 2024

22nd August, 2024 (6 Comments)

The latest H1 2024 data from caller ID verification firm Hiya, which also works with broadband ISPs BT (EE) and Virgin Media (O2) to help detect and block SPAM and fraud calls, has revealed that residents of the UK received only 3 spam calls per person each month (down from 4 at the same time last year) – one of the lowest rates in Europe.

Three UK Warn Customers Over Rise in Missed Parcel SMS Scams

2nd August, 2024 (12 Comments)

Mobile network operator Three UK has warned customers this week about an increase in fraudsters using “missed parcel” SMS (text) scam messages this summer, which are not a million miles from the fake DHL or FedEx delivery messages that tried to infect phones with malware a few years ago (and continue to do so today).

Ofcom Orders UK Phones Providers to Add Tougher Scam Call Blocking

29th July, 2024 (10 Comments)

The telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today given UK phone providers (fixed line and mobile) six months to implement changes that aim to help tackle scammers who call from abroad and imitate UK landline numbers (i.e. spoofed calls), which requires stricter measures against “Presentation Numbers” that are used to identify who is making a call.

Ofcom Propose New Ban to Tackle Abuse of UK Mobile Networks

22nd July, 2024 (8 Comments)

Market regulator Ofcom has proposed to ban UK telecoms operators from leasing Global Titles – numbers like +44 (for the United Kingdom) that support mobile services – to third parties. This is because such leasing can be misused to try and intercept messages and calls, disrupt the operation of networks and track the location of users of other networks.

Ofcom UK Hit BT with £17.5m Fine for 999 Call Handling Fault UPDATE

22nd July, 2024 (17 Comments)

The national regulator, Ofcom, has this morning hit BT with a fine of £17.5m for being “ill-prepared to respond to a catastrophic failure of its emergency call handling service last summer” (here), which readers may recall occurred after a technical fault (“complex software issue”) resulted in 14,000 emergency calls being disrupted. The disruption lasted for 10.5 hours.

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Openreach Toughen Whereabouts Stance for Altnet UK Broadband Engineers UPDATE

29th June, 2024 (10 Comments)

Openreach (BT) has begun the process of toughening up their stance on compliance with their “whereabouts” rules. This could see them taking further contractual action against alternative UK broadband networks (altnets) that struggle to reach the necessary 90% performance threshold, which might eventually include restrictions on network access.

Northumberland Council Warn of Rise in UK Broadband Scammers

28th June, 2024 (0 Comments)

The Northumberland County Council (NCC) in England has put out a general warning to residents after observing a rise in “broadband-related cyber fraud“, which occurs when scammers attempt to impersonate your ISP in order to steal financial data and money. Some 68% of the reported victims have collectively lost £12.57k to this scam alone.