Member Article

FOI Reveals Phishing Scammers Have Stolen in Excess of £100,000 From Students

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the UK’s Student Loan Company (SLC) has revealed that £108,205 has been stolen from university students via phishing attacks, since the beginning of the 2015 academic year up to December 2017.

The request, carried out by cyber security awareness education and phishing simulation provider Cyber Risk Aware, revealed that, in total, 72 students had their funds redirected by phishers during this time. These e-scammers attempt to obtain student’s financial or personal details from e-mails which lead them to click on malicious links.

These findings come as university students have recently received the second of three loan instalments for the 2017/2018 academic year and follows recent warnings that attackers have specifically targeted students applying for loans. The FOI also revealed that, whilst some students have been phished, the Student Loan Company’s Counter Fraud Services (CFS) department has prevented 463 attacks* where financial losses would have totalled £785,718.

“Students are a particular target for phishing emails from hackers attempting to steal their money; phishing emails can be very convincing and fraudsters know exactly how to lure students into sharing personal details,” said Stephen Burke, Founder of Cyber Risk Aware. “But it’s not just emails where students need to be vigilant; attackers are also smart in creating ‘friendships’ and fake events, asking for personal and financial details whilst playing on a person’s ‘fear of missing out’.”

In response to the FOI, the Student Loan Company stated: “Over the last few years, the SLC has improved on its ability to detect fraudulent interactions and can now identify these at an earlier stage. This means we can take action as payment dates approach, preventing fraudsters from making changes to a student’s account.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by BS .