Spam emails are emails sent out to millions of email addresses to try to gain personal information.
Once the personal information has been gained, fraudsters can use it to commit fraud, which could include financial institution fraud, credit card fraud and identity fraud.
Behaviours that put you at risk:
- Opening attachments, or clinking on links.
- Responding to spam emails that ask for your personal or financial details.
- Logging in to a webpage that you have arrived at via a link in an email.
How to protect yourself:
- Don’t open attachments or click on the links within any unsolicited emails you receive, and never respond to emails that ask for your personal or financial details. Remember, you can hover over a link to see where it will really take you.
- An email address can be spoofed, so even if the email appears to be from a person or a company you know of, but the message is unexpected or unusual then contact the sender directly via another method to confirm that they sent you the email.
- If you receive an email which asks you to login to an online account, for example due to suspicious activity on your account, instead of clicking on the link provided in the email, go directly to the website yourself.
If fraud has been committed, report it to Action Fraud.
See also:
Phishing
Credit card fraud
Identity theft and fraud