UK cyber experts have overseen a fifteen-fold increase in the number of scams removed from the internet, a new report reveals.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), part of GCHQ, said it took down more scams this year than the previous three years combined.

The NCSC is tasked with protecting the UK from cyber attacks and expanded during 2020 with initiatives like the suspicious email reporting service, which received nearly four million reports of suspect emails last year.

The NCSC reported to have removed 700,595 online scams totalling 1,448,214 URLs.

The most common were phishing scams, fraudulent emails purporting to be from reputable organisations attempting to get individuals to reveal personal information, including credit card details.

A total of 59,435 of these attacks claimed to be the UK Government, with 22,148 of these claiming to be HMRC.

Dr Ian Levy, technical director of the NCSC described the organisation's work with partners at home and overseas had "never been more important than in the last year, where it was vital for us to do everything we could to protect our most critical services and the wider public during the pandemic".

The report was released ahead of the NCSC's annual CYBERUK gathering, which is due to take place tomorrow.

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