On 9th and 10th of November, the 3rd Global Anti Scam Summit (GASS) was held at The Hague. The goal of the summit is to help governments, consumer and financial authorities, law enforcement, brand protection agencies, and commercial organisations share knowledge and insights on fighting online scams and define concrete actions to combat online fraud more effectively and efficiently. 

Delivering a combination of presentations, lectures and workshops, the event also became victim to a false fire alarm, troll activity on the live Zoom chat, and a hack of the live stream while Mr Jack Whittaker, a PhD candidate at the University of Surrey, was giving a presentation on why Internet users get scammed. 

Commenting on the summit, MTU’s Cyber Skills Project Manager, Jacqueline Kehoe, re-emphasised the importance of remaining vigilant as she recounted a fake scam Singapore-based cyber-security company Group-IB conducted during the event. 

The company targeted 100 participants at the summit though fake LinkedIn accounts. Participants were told they had been selected by the organisers to take part in a lucky draw and were sent a link that asked for their personal details. Thirty-five participants clicked the fake link, 15 completed the fake form and submitted their personal details, and two furnished additional information.