China Overseas Chinese Network, January 18th. According to the European Times' British WeChat public account "British Circle", many people are eager to be vaccinated against the new crown pneumonia as soon as possible after seeing new confirmed cases in the UK.

However, the government currently only provides free vaccines to certain groups, and the vaccination speed is not as fast as expected.

Some scammers used people's panic to create a "new crown pneumonia vaccine scam", and many people have been deceived.

New crown pneumonia vaccine scam

  On the 11th, the British government released a complete COVID-19 vaccination plan.

According to this plan, the government will set up more than 2,700 vaccination points across the UK, and has mobilized more than 80,000 medical staff to assist in vaccination and related work.

The United Kingdom has so far approved 3 new coronary pneumonia vaccines for use, and has started to vaccinate the people with the new coronary pneumonia vaccine on December 8, 2020.

"Daily Mail" reported that the UK originally scheduled at least 2 million doses of vaccination a week, but the current average rate is only 330,000 doses a week, which is slower than the rate of flu vaccination.

In order to speed up vaccination, a plan drafted by the British National Health Service (NHS) proposes to "use all available places for vaccination."

  At the same time, taking advantage of people's panic and the eagerness to be vaccinated, scammers create a "new crown pneumonia vaccine scam."

Many tabloids have reported this scam, reminding the public to be vigilant.

At present, such scams generally use fake NHS to send text messages to people indicating that the recipient is eligible for the new crown pneumonia vaccine, and then further require people to enter the fake NHS website to perform relevant registration and provide personal information such as identity bank cards.

This type of fake NHS website is very real, and many people are eager to get vaccinated, leading to many people being deceived.

  The British police have now issued a reminder through social media: "Please be alert to any fraudulent text messages or phone calls that tell you that you can get the new crown pneumonia vaccine. Please do not provide any payment or personal details in the attached link. When your GP contacts you for vaccination When the new crown pneumonia vaccine is used, you will not be asked to collect money!"

  According to the Birmingham Post, a spokesperson for the NHS has now stated: “The new crown pneumonia vaccine is currently only available on the NHS for free to certain groups. The NHS will take the initiative to contact you when it’s your turn.” In addition, the NHS will never People are required to confirm that they want to be vaccinated by pressing a button or sending a text message. They are also not required to make payments through links or provide bank details.

"Anyone who volunteers to provide paid vaccines and request payment details directly in the link is committing a crime."

Pretending to provide "epidemic subsidies" or tax rebates

  In fact, in addition to the "new crown pneumonia vaccine scam", many people have been deceived by various fraudulent methods since the British blockade.

According to Sky News, since the first blockade policy in the United Kingdom in March 2020, the total amount of fraud cases related to the new crown pneumonia epidemic has reached 4.6 million pounds, of which more than 10,000 people have believed in fake emails and text messages. And be deceived.

Often scammers will use the name of providing subsidies for the new crown pneumonia epidemic, selling fake or non-existent medical supplies, etc., to trick people into proactively providing personal and bank details.

  After the third wave of blockade in the United Kingdom, scammers launched a new round of fraud on the grounds of actively providing British government subsidies.

They will imitate government agencies such as the UK Revenue Office and the General Administration of Customs (HMRC), saying that they can provide false financial support or tax refunds, and then request personal information through fake links.

Once you find that you need to fill in bank card and other payment information to get subsidies and tax refunds, you must be vigilant.

According to Sky News, a HMRC spokesperson said: "In 2019 alone, HMRC reported 3387 phone numbers used in tax-related phone fraud activities to telecom companies, and received more than 306,219 phone frauds from the public. report."

Britain’s official collation of "the most complete fraud method" list

  In view of the endless emergence of scams carried out in the official capacity of the United Kingdom, in addition to the latest scams mentioned above in the name of NHS providing paid new crown pneumonia vaccines and providing third-wave blockade subsidies, the British government has also compiled a list of the most common Fraud method.

  1. Email fraud

  The most common in the UK is email scams.

Generally, it is through sending emails to victims in the name of protecting economic conditions from the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, indicating that they can refund taxes, and requesting victims to click a hyperlink to obtain a refund.

Although this type of webpage looks like an official website, it is not actually hosted on a domain ending in gov.uk.

Some may even have English word spelling and grammatical errors.

2. SMS fraud

  Another common scam in the UK is SMS scams. In addition to the previously mentioned fake government sending text messages during the new crown pneumonia epidemic to indicate that it can provide relief money for businesses, it may also provide tax refunds with fake HMRC identity, just like emails. Request to click the link to enter personal information.

There is also a new method of fraud that emerged after the new crown pneumonia epidemic is based on "detecting that you have left the house multiple times during the quarantine period and will be fined 250 pounds" as the ground, requiring you to call the attached phone number or click on the attached link to appeal.

But this call is fake, and the link is fake. Once the call is over, the scammer will have various ways to get you hooked.

 3. Phone fraud

  Victims of phone fraud are very common among the elderly and vulnerable groups.

Often scammers will use HMRC to file a lawsuit against the victim, and finally ask the victim to directly provide bank information and make payment when talking to the "person in charge of the case."

4. Social media scams

  Compared with the elderly and disadvantaged groups, young people are more likely to be fooled in social media.

For example, sending tax refunds or subsidies to victims via social media in the official name and requesting personal or financial information.

But HMRC has clearly stated that it is absolutely impossible for them to notify via social media.

Therefore, any notification received in the name of HMRC on social media is false, so ignore it.

How to report a fraud case?

  In general, the best way to prevent being deceived is to not easily trust any financial support such as tax refunds and subsidies provided in the name of the British official, especially when you are required to fill in personal information and bank card details through links or the Internet. Very vigilant.

The following is how to report after encountering different scams in the UK.

 1. Email and social media scams

  The UK reports on email and social media fraud cases in the same way.

Send the detailed information via email to the HMRC team responsible for phishing: phishing@hmrc.gov.uk, just specify the content to be reported in the subject of the email, such as "suspicious email address".

2. SMS fraud

  SMS fraud can also be reported by email, and the fraudulent SMS can also be forwarded to 60599 (the SMS will be charged according to the operator you use).

 3. Phone fraud

  When you encounter phone fraud and have already caused financial losses, you need to report the case to Action Fraud (the UK website specializing in online fraud).

In addition, you need to fill in the suspicious call report form provided by the official website of the British government, which needs to include the date of the fraudulent call, the phone number used, and the content of the call.