Spam, Phishing & Malware

Phishing emails trick the person who receives it into giving them sensitive information or money eg. logins, credit card details, payment etc. Common ploys are:

• Requesting payment for an outstanding fee.

• Requesting to reset your password or verify your account.

• Asking to verify a purchase you haven’t made.

• Contain familiar brand/logos & content.

• It needs your urgent attention and action so you don’t get time to look closely to see the links etc.

• Asking to update billing information. Eg. during lockdown there was an email scam that your Netflix account was locked and needed an urgent payment update.

• Malware is software that is created to disrupt, damage, or gain unauthorized access to a computer system.

• An email will contain a link or attachment and the content of the email will trick the recipient into opening the link or downloading the attachment. When the link is opened or the attachment downloaded it runs a hidden code to access, damage or disrupt your computer system.

• Never open emails, links or attachments from unknown sources.

• Even if you know the source, if you are suspicious of the content or it is unsolicited check with the sender first.

• Senders address is not correct - check this very carefully against official address information.

• The sender does not know your name, they use friend or your email address.

• Typos and bad grammar.

• There are attachments.

• Links in the email look suspicious (you can see these by just hovering over them with the mouse button)

• The offer in the email is too good to be true. Asking you to give a small amount of money to receive a large sum in return (this is an advance fee scam). If it sounds too good to be true it probably is!