Your Customer’s Worst Day: How to Be Ready When Cybercrime Hits

Are your teams prepared for a customer’s worst day - when cybercrime turns a routine interaction into a crisis?

Charlotte Hooper, Head of Operations at The Cyber Helpline, shares how fraud, hacking, and online abuse affect real people, and what organisations can do to support them.

This episode uncovers the human impact of cybercrime and explores how businesses can protect trust by responding with clarity, empathy, and practical support.

Why Cybercrime Is a Customer Experience Problem

Cybercrime is rarely just about stolen data or broken systems. For victims, it often feels like their lives have been turned upside down.

Charlotte explains how many arrive at The Cyber Helpline feeling anxious, disoriented, and unsure who they can trust.

For businesses, these moments are defining tests of care and credibility.

Handled with urgency and empathy, they also create an opportunity to prevent further harm and protect long-term relationships.

"In stalking cases, advice like 'just block them' or 'factory reset your phone' can be dangerous, because you do not know how the perpetrator will react, and you may destroy vital evidence."

Charlotte Hooper, Head of Operations, The Cyber Helpline

What Victims Really Need

When people reach out after fraud or cyber crime, they aren’t looking for jargon. They want to feel safe, heard, and guided.

Beyond reassurance, victims need someone to take ownership, explain risks in plain language, and help them preserve their privacy.

They also need recognition that digital threats can spill over into the physical world - especially in cases involving stalking or coercion.

Looking at Risk Before Tools

The first step isn’t fixing devices or addressing technical problems; it’s understanding a real person’s situation.

Have others had access to their phone or accounts? Are accounts shared? Could a known individual be behind the problem?

Asking these questions helps prevent well-meant advice that could escalate risk or erase crucial evidence.

Diagnosing the Real Issue

Many victims are convinced their device is infected, but more often the real compromise lies elsewhere.

Email or cloud accounts - with their links to social media, banking, and storage - are frequent entry points.

Encouraging checks on sign-in history, forwarding rules, and recovery settings often reveals what’s really going on.

Making Security the Default

It’s not realistic to expect users to make the right decision every time.

Businesses can lighten the load by building protections into their systems from the outset - encryption, authentication, and monitoring as standard rather than optional extras.

Adaptive identity checks and the ability to revoke or expire access give customers practical control without constant friction.

When to Refer to The Cyber Helpline

Some incidents go beyond what corporate support teams can manage. Recognising these moments is crucial.

When multiple accounts are compromised, when stalking or domestic abuse is suspected, or when a customer’s physical safety is at risk, referral is the right step.

The Cyber Helpline provides ongoing, personalised support that complements what organisations can deliver in the first hours of a crisis.

Encouraging customers to report to the police remains important too. Even when cases don’t proceed, intelligence builds a clearer national picture of threats, as shown in victimisation research.

"Only around a third of people have reported to the police when they reach us, but by the time they leave, that rises to about 70 percent, because reporting still feeds threat intelligence even when cases are closed quickly."

Charlotte Hooper, Head of Operations, The Cyber Helpline

The Threats Emerging Now

Charlotte notes that the crimes themselves aren’t new - but technology is amplifying them.

Stalking increasingly exploits shared logins, location apps, and even smart home devices.

Scammers continue to weaponise urgency and trust, with investment fraud alone costing UK consumers hundreds of millions each year.

Sextortion scams are rising, often targeting young men, and AI is increasingly being used to create fake images or videos, as Victim Support has warned.

AI hasn’t invented new crimes, but it has made social engineering more persuasive and more relentless.

Building a Customer Crisis Playbook

To be ready, organisations should develop a playbook that blends technical actions with human-centred support.

1) Triage and Questions

Simple, structured questions help frontline staff quickly understand risks - whether devices were shared, accounts accessed, or recovery settings changed.

2) Safe Contact and Evidence

Secure communication channels reassure customers. Careful evidence handling protects both victims and investigators.

3) Containment and Hardening

Resetting primary accounts, revoking unauthorised sessions, and enforcing stronger authentication are key containment measures.

Checking recovery details and device sharing closes overlooked entry points.

4) Communication That Calms

Empathy matters as much as technical fixes. Explaining what’s happening now, what comes next, and when updates will follow builds confidence at a vulnerable time.

Signposting independent resources like the NCSC charity guide shows that support extends beyond your organisation.

Shaping Culture: Protection as Standard

Awareness training plays a role, but it cannot carry the burden alone.

Embedding secure-by-default processes means customers are protected every time, regardless of individual choices.

Sharing stories from real incidents makes threats relatable, without implying victims are at fault.

"Crimes look the same as five or ten years ago, but AI makes the lures more polished, and people trust them faster."

Charlotte Hooper, Head of Operations, The Cyber Helpline

Checklist: Steps for Leaders

• Define a clear escalation pathway for customer incidents.
• Offer a dedicated secure channel for sensitive interactions.
• Provide frontline teams with practical triage and evidence-preservation guidance.
• Agree referral arrangements with The Cyber Helpline and relevant services.
• Measure results - not just speed of resolution, but also customer confidence and repeat victimisation rates.

FAQs

When Is It Unsafe to Tell Someone to Wipe a Device?

In cases of stalking or coercive control, wiping devices may destroy evidence or escalate danger - so avoid this advice.

How Do We Decide Between Handling In-House or Referring?

Refer when cases involve multiple accounts, interpersonal risk, or require sustained coaching beyond your capacity.

Does AI Change Our Response Plan?

The fundamentals remain, but expect more convincing scams and prioritise verification and secure channels.

What Resources Can We Share With Customers?

Point to trusted resources such as Action Fraud or NCSC reports.

References

Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025, GOV.UK, 2025

Experiences of Victims of Fraud and Cyber Crime, GOV.UK, 2025

Increase in Number of 'Sextortion' Contacts Received by Childline, NSPCC, 2024

Sextortion, Victim Support, 2024

Cybercrime Victimisation and the Association With Age, Health and Sociodemographic Characteristics, VISION Consortium / PLOS ONE, 2024

Small Charity Guide, National Cyber Security Centre, 2025

National Cyber Strategy 2022, GOV.UK, 2022

City of London Police: £612 Million Lost to Investment Fraud, 2024

AI-Powered Social Engineering Attacks, CrowdStrike, 2025

How to Stay Cyber Secure With Volunteers, Charity Digital, 2023

New NCSC Cyber Threat Report, WCVA, 2023

Reviewed by

Sam Kendall, 18.08.2025