Today we passed the 1000 case milestone!
Today we reached 1,000 cases through the helpline!
That is 1,000 victims of cybercrime we have supported with our chatbot and team of volunteers. It is an incredibly proud moment for the us and our supporters.
It all started with a phone scam two years ago
Out first ever case was in May 2018, as we prepared to fully launch our service that November with the release of our intelligent chatbot, we were contacted by the individual who had been tricked into transferring funds into a ‘safe’ bank account by a scam caller pretending to be from her bank. She lost over £3,000. We supported her through the recovery process and made sure she understood how to avoid this type of scam in future.
The release of our chatbot six months later saw a step change in both our capability and the demand for our service.
The chatbot allowed us to provide a 24/7 service where victims could anonymously get help diagnosing their issue and get immediate help. The chatbot also created cases with our volunteers who supported individuals with more advanced support.
Demand for our service rose quickly and we are currently opening around 150 cases a month and this number is growing fast. We now have almost 50 volunteers supporting our cases.
Rapid evolution and planning for 10x growth
Our service focus changed very quickly. When we launched we planned for the vast majority of our cases to be hacked accounts, malicious software and digital scams.
However, what we found is while these were significant, a large proportion (almost a third) of our cases were cyberstalking, online harassment, content for ransom attacks and revenge porn. As a result, we have developed expertise and partnerships in these areas that allow us to provide excellent support to our users.
Our team are now planning for how we move from supporting 150 cases a month to 1,000 cases a month. This means a large focus on funding, marketing and internal service development. It is going to be a tough challenge, but one that will take us one step closer to achieving our mission of making sure everyone in the UK has access to cyber security expertise when they need it most.
Thank you all
Finally, a massive thank you to our volunteers (past and present), service users, donors, partners and supporters. There are many people and organisations who have helped us along the way with support and advice and we couldn’t have done it without you.
To continue our mission we will need volunteers, funding and partnerships. If you think you can help please get in touch.
Here is to helping another 1,000 people!