Scammers claiming to work for Virgin Media – breach victims to be wary

Scammers claiming to work for Virgin Media have been reportedly contacting elderly residents in more than one location in the UK. With cybercrime at a peak due to the coronavirus pandemic, these phone scams are just one example among many methods used by fraudsters in an attempt to extract personal data, particularly financial details.

There is no evidence to suggest that the scammers are linked to the Virgin Media data breach of last March, which saw the personal data of 900,000 UK residents become exposed due to the failure to secure a company database. However, many data breach victims do suffer attacks from scammers and fraudsters who, equipped with their personal data, can trick their targets into thinking that they are honest representatives of reputable companies. This is why we feel it is important to cover this issue in the context of the data breach that we represent people for.

As leading data breach specialists, we represent victims of data breaches to recover the compensation they deserve. When it comes to data protection, carelessness is unacceptable given the harmful risks it exposes victims to, so contact us if you think you may have a compensation claim to make.

Fraudulent calls from scammers claiming to work for Virgin Media

Elderly residents are understood to be the latest recipients of calls from scammers claiming to work for Virgin Media, who are presumably seeking what they consider to be easier and more vulnerable targets.

Older people can be more susceptible to scams, which is why it is important for those in this category to be warier.

When scammers capitalise on a data breach

In fact, just as scammers take advantage of vulnerable demographics, they also use current events as a means of adding legitimacy to their scams. This has been seen in the recent wave of coronavirus-related scams. As such, the scammers claiming to work for Virgin Media may be using the Virgin Media data breach to convince targets to hand over information; for example, by claiming that certain details were lost in the breach and that they need to record them again.

Again, nothing links these two events, but it is important to recognise that data breaches can be exploited in this way. And it does happen.

In response to the reports of fraudulent communication, Virgin Media have issued a warning to UK consumers. While Virgin Media cannot be directly blamed for such scams, it is our view that Virgin Media did not seem to be taking its data protection responsibilities seriously enough when it left a marketing database unsecured for ten months, which is why we launched a group action on behalf the Virgin Media data breach victims.

Claiming compensation for scams resulting from a data breach

The scammers claiming to work for Virgin Media make up only a tiny section of the world of cybercriminals, many of whom are bolstered by the poor data protection and cybersecurity of some data controllers.

As specialists in data breach law, our Virgin Media group action is one of several lawsuits we have brought against companies that have failed to protect personal data. We fight to recover compensation for data leak victims, not only to recover money lost due to fraud and scams resulting from breaches, but also to compensate them for the distress they have been caused.

Contact us for free, no-obligation advice if you think you may have a claim to make.

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