Business information

There's something phishy about these emails

Have you ever received an email seemingly from a reputable company telling you to update your account information on their website?

It may well be a scam - and you could end up out of pocket, according to Hertfordshire Trading Standards.

The scam is called 'phishing' and involves thousands of emails being sent out to potential victims.

They pretend to be from organisations such as banks, credit card companies, online shops or auction sites, and contain a compelling - but bogus - reason to follow a link in the email to a website.

The site looks like the real thing but is a fake, designed to trick victims into entering personal information such as passwords or credit card numbers.

Keith Emsall, Executive Member for Community Safety and Culture, said: "The internet is a wonderful thing, but it is inevitable that some people will abuse it.

"The fraudulent emails encourage people to visit the site for reasons such as updating an account before it expires, and this seems a fairly reasonable request."

"Falling for these scams can have disastrous consequences however, so I would urge anyone who uses email to follow the guidance from trading standards and stay safe on the internet."

Criminals can make an email look as if it comes from someone else. Fake emails often (but not always) display some of the following characteristics:

- The sender's email address doesn't tally with the trusted organisation's website address;
- The email is sent from a completely different address or a free web mail address;
- The email does not use your proper name, but uses a non-specific greeting like "dear customer";
- A sense of urgency; for example the threat that unless you act immediately your account may be closed;
- A prominent website link. These can be forged or seem very similar to the proper address, but even a single character's difference means a different website;
- A request for personal information such as user name, password or bank details;
- You weren't expecting to get an email from the company that appears to have sent it;
- The entire text of the email is contained within an image rather than the usual text format. The image contains an embedded hyperlink to a bogus site.

Anyone concerned about an email they have received should call Consumer Direct on 08454 04 05 06 between 8am and 6.30pm Monday to Friday, and between 9am and 1pm Saturday (excluding bank and public holidays), or visit www.consumerdirect.gov.uk.