Fraud Awareness Week: COVID-19 cyber fraudster

November 17, 2021

This week as part of Fraud Awareness Week, we’re bringing you some cases from across the country where people have been caught committing fraud.

A fraudster who used fake digital messages to trick people into providing their bank details to receive a vaccine, was jailed after a successful investigation by the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit (DCPU), a specialist police unit within the City of London and Metropolitan police.

Teige Gallagher (21, of North London) sent bulk text messages to members of the public, posing to be from a variety of commercial organisations, such as banks, as well as the NHS.

Gallagher used links to direct victims to imitation websites, where he could trick them into providing personal information and bank details, which he claimed were required to obtain a vaccine.

Specialist tools were used by Gallagher to send out bulk SMS messages to mobile phone numbers he had obtained from a data breach.

This type of fraud involved ‘smishing’ (where fraudsters obtain personal details of a victim by SMS text messages) and ‘phishing’ (a method of accessing valuable personal details, such as usernames and passwords.

Gallagher pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation and was sentence to four years and three months’ imprisonment.

All suspicions of fraud or bribery should be reported to the Local Counter Fraud Specialist Sophie Coster (Tel: 07436 268747), Chief Finance Officer Dinah McLannahan; or NHSCFA via 0800 028 40 60.

Notice Fraud November: In this November issue we focus on current fraud trends across the NHS, providing you with some useful insights into current fraud risk areas and details of some recent fraud investigations. Click here to check it out.