A Three Mobile fraud investigation has identified tens of thousands more customers have been hit than was previously thought. The mobile operator said 76,373 more customers had been hit than previously thought, a 57% increase on initial estimates made last year. Mark James, IT Security Specialist at ESET commented below.
Mark James, IT Security Specialist at ESET:
“As always with this type of data breach the focus seems to be on financial information “not” being obtained, but when you look at names, addresses, dates of birth and methods of payment (the actual data that was stolen) the bank details are the easiest to change! The type of info we either would not or could not change is being sold, traded, stored or accessed online by cybercriminals to build a profile of you the victim, it is then reused much later down the line often to get more information that can be used either for financial gain or identity theft. Spam or nuisance calls are usually met with instant dismissal when the terms or greetings are generic or details vague, but when presented with tangible or recognisable snippets of proof it’s much more likely the end user will be successfully duped into giving away something much more valuable.
Always be vigilant when receiving emails or calls out of the blue, don’t be concerned over checking their validity, if necessary hang up and make a separate call on your mobile to verify details given, if it’s a legitimate company they won’t penalise you for making sure.”
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