ONLINE fraudsters have preyed on hundreds of residents across the county by hacking into their social media accounts and emails.

Cybercriminals have targeted unwitting Hampshire residents stealing valuable personal information - and in some cases money.

Hampshire Constabulary reported 445 cases of social media and email hacking costing an estimated £107,500 overall, according to research by AddictiveTips.com.

The means a loss of around £240 per victim.

Social media and emails form an essential part of many people’s online activity.

However, they are vulnerable to hacking by opportunistic cybercriminals looking to steal valuable personal details.

Hampshire Constabulary received the seventh most reports of hacks across the county, according to data from the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau looking at 43 police forces.

Between January and December 2020, April was the worst month with 55 cases.

Meanwhile, Hampshire Constabulary was alerted to only 20 cases in August.

Across England and Wales, there were 13,343 cases of social media and email hacking from January to December 2020

The total financial loss victims suffered is estimated at £3,573,079.

The Metropolitan Police had the highest amount of hacking cases between January and December 2020, at a shocking 2,357 reports, the equivalent of six incidents per day in the capital.

To combat hackers, web users are urged to use a strong password.

A password that is hard to crack must use a combination of different characters that include uppercase letters, lowercase letters, special characters, and numbers.

Passwords should be updated regularly - at least once every three months - to improve security.

Other strategies internet users can use to protect against Hackers and recommended by AddictiveTips include two-factor authentication (2FA).

An extra layer of security, it can help protect a social media account even if a password is stolen by hackers.

It requires a second layer of information – for example, entering a code sent to a user’s phone via text message – before it lets someone into the account. Using 2FA can help keep criminals away from sensitive information even if they manage to steal someone’s passwords.

Individuals and businesses targeted by online scammers are urged to contact Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040.