Scam e-mails can come from a number of different sources and claim to be relating to normal everyday things such as:
• Banks/Finance Companies asking to confirm details online
• Receipts for items/parcel services
• Lottery win
• Dating sites
• Fake shipping documents
How to spot a scam e-mail:
• The sender’s e-mail address doesn’t tally with the trusted organisation’s website address.
• The e-mail is sent from a completely different address or a free web mail address.
• The e-mail 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 request for personal information such as user name, password or bank details.
• The e-mail contains spelling and grammatical errors.
• You weren’t expecting to get an e-mail from the company that appears to have sent it.
What to do if you receive scam e-mail:
• Do not click on any links in the scam e-mail.
• Do not reply to the e-mail or contact the senders in any way.
• If you have clicked on a link in the e-mail, do not supply any information on the website that may open.
•Do not open any attachments that arrive with the e-mail.
Want to learn more? Here is a link to the Virgin Media’s Cybercrime security quiz