Some fraudsters try to steal personal information like bank card details by masquerading as a trustworthy sender in an email (this is known as phishing). By sending a message claiming to be from a legitimate person or company, they trick you into visiting or submitting your details to an unsecure site.
It might be a scam email when…
- It asks for personal information like your bank or payment details, username or password
- The sender’s address is different to a relevant website address
- There’s a suspicious sense of urgency, like a threat that your account will be closed unless you take immediate action
- It’s a generic greeting such as ‘Dear customer’
- You weren’t expecting it
If you’re at all worried, don’t click on any links, open any attachments or forward these to anyone else. Instead, you could contact the company to find out if an email is trustworthy. And you can always get the information you need from their website rather than a link in an email.