Island Life Magazine Ltd April/May 2017 | Page 129

Legal
Dangers of technology
By Terence Willey of Terence Willey & Co
The use of electronic communication
is now becoming widespread, not only
across the legal profession, but in Trade
and Industry generally, along with the
financial world.
There are many advantages, both in respect of
expedient communication, clarity and efficiency.
However, this has opened the doors to fraudsters who
see this as a ‘vehicle’ to commit serious crime.
The intervention of bogus emails during day to day
transactions has become overwhelmingly worrying
and whilst thousand of pounds are spent by companies
each year in the installation of protection software,
unfortunately this does not deter the fraudsters, who
are becoming even more sophisticated.
I was informed recently that a convicted criminal in
this activity had been employed by a top IT company,
having served his time in jail, to advise and assist them
with appropriate and effective protection. Banks and
other financial institutions have now begun educating
their customers by regular circulation of material
advising them how to deal with varying situations.
In addition to this there has been as a sharp
increase in the general public being bombarded
with telephone calls from individuals purporting to
be technical staff of Microsoft, BT and other se rvice
providers. Top retail brands have also been mimicked
to draw people into participation of bogus offers
and draws, requesting regular payments from them
for participation. Internet users are regularly alerted
to ‘click’ to repair a fault or clear scam emails from
inappropriate sites at a cost and purporting to be
specialists in a ‘quick fix’ resolution, only to find the
very company emailing you are fraudulent. Do not
ever open such unsolicited requests or permit screen
sharing with anyone. The mere permission granted
to share your screen gives endless opportunity to
the fraudster for your entire computer to be cloned.
Quite unbelievably the fraudsters are now posing as
Government departments and using their headed
mail to seek out individuals bank details online.
How can we defeat this situation?
Unfortunately there is no simple resolution, other
than to say that we must all be extremely vigilant of
every electronic communication that we receive.
The Government are totally “hand-tied” regarding
considering any useful legislation, as much of the
scams are initiated outside of the United Kingdom.
The Police are similarly frustrated in effectively
pursuing individuals and companies outside our
country committing this widespread crime. It is
therefore down to all organisations and individuals
to exercise the upmost care and vigilance in dealing
with any electronic communications either by email,
text messaging, phone calls or voice mails.
Sadly it is the elderly and vulnerable who seem to be
regularly targeted also and this should in my view be
addressed by mailing education from the Government.
As a Practice we have advised and assisted many
elderly persons and others over the years who have
found themselves the subject of possible fraud and in
some cases we have effectively been able to prevent
serious financial loss taking place.
If you are an Attorney for an individual and their
financial affairs there is even more reason to exercise
the utmost vigilance to protect all the assets of the
individual to the fullest and if in doubt, never be
reluctant to take advice.
www.visitilife.com
129