As you receive more and more emails it can become easy to fall for a phishing scam [What is "Phishing" and should I be worried about it?].
Once you know what to look for it can become a little easier to spot these types of scam emails. Below is an example of a Barclays Bank phishing scam where the sender is attempting to gain access to your online banking account.
At first glance the email does look genuine however there are some tell tale signs.
- The email is addresses “Dear Sir/Madam” - Your bank will know your name and your sex!
- The To: field of the email does not contain your name
- Your bank would never ask you for your personal details in an email.
- (PC Users) If you right click on the website address displayed and select properties you will see the real website you are being directed to.
- Microsoft Outlook users can hover your mouse over the website address to also see the real address.
In addition to the above there are some other important things you should look out for with any such email you receive.
- The email may not show an actual website address and instead have the text “click here” or similiar. but again the above checks will reveal the actual website you are visiting.
- Your bank or any other financial organisation will never ask you to “confirm” your account details in an email.
In any case the safest thing to do is visit the actual website address you usually log in to and follow the instructions provided on the site.
Customers using mail services provided by AGUK have some degree of protection against these threats as we use sophisticated scanning and validation of emails we receive to reject such emails however it is still possible that some emails can get through.
If you want further advice for you or your business on protecting yourself from such scams then please contact us for information.