Phishing Scams How to avoid scam financial emails

Phishing is a special type of spam e-mail, cleverly disguised in an attempt to steal your passwords and bank codes. Once the phishers have got those, they steal your money.

In this guide

• How does phishing work?
• What can be done about it?
• How about phone calls?
• Phishing examples
• A final thought

How does it work?

You receive a plausible-looking email from your bank, a regularly used retailer or Governemnt department. These are sent at random in the hope they may just catch someone who has, for example, an account with that bank and thinks it is genuine. You'll usually realise it’s a con because you have no relationship with the company, but sometimes you may get caught.

At the bottom of the email, there will be a link. Often it looks like a real one. When you click on it, it'll probably take you through to a professional-looking website – a mirror image of the real thing. You’ll comfortably put your password in – and then you can say bye bye to your cash.

What can I do?

NEVER EVER EVER EVER click a link and enter your password - no matter how genuine it looks. If it looks a genuine security concern, call your bank or visit its published website address. If it is genuine you can handle it that way, just never click on these links.

What about phone calls?

These are likely to be more genuine. However, I would still suggest that as good practice, you should never give your PIN or password. Always call the bank back by its published number - that way, you'll know it is genuine.

In a more sophisticated approach, some fraudsters are now calling people, then waiting on the line (so the call's not cut off) while they 'call the bank back', then proceeding to get the information they want, while you think you're talking to your bank.

If you can, use a different phone (office, mobile) to the one you were called on to foil this. If you can't, leave some time before you call your bank back to try and ensure the fraudsters think you haven't fallen for it and hang up.

Mistaking the genuine for a scam is nowhere near as bad as mistaking a scam for the genuine

Examples of phishing

We receive phishing emails constantly, so thought we'd share a couple with you. These have NOTHING to do with the parent banks. I have slightly changed the links in them to prevent anyone clicking them in error.

Phish number one – The Invisible Text Phish

Run your mouse over the email and select it. You'll see invisible text appearing. The additional characters you can see in this help it beat some anti-spam software.

Phish number two - The Earnest Approach

What we love about this one is it purports to be a genuine protective email aimed at stopping just this type of problem. Cunning devils.

Email address this seemed to come from: Citibank Email Security.
Underlying address it actually came from: Security-Alert@bank.alert.it.rd.yahooX.com

Phish number three– The Enticing Attachment

A final type of phishing email to watch out for is one including an attachment, often a '.htm' or '.html' file. The sender will be trying to convince you to click and open this file, as the virus is hidden inside.

The solution is simple, but so important it is worth shouting LOUD...

Never ever ever ever EVER open an attachment unless you are 100% sure of its contents. EVER.

A final thought

Phishing emails can appear to come from any bank or building society, or financial organisation for that matter, such as HM Revenue & Customs. They are extremely cleverly done. Look at the above, it's very easy to be fooled.

Just follow the golden rule. Never click a banking/financial link in an email. Always go to the published website address yourself.

These people are scum, but clever scum. Protect yourself.

Test your knowledge

Now you know all about phishing, try this quick quiz to see how savvy you are.