How to spot Phishing
Phishing is most common by email, but it can also come by text or phone call.
There are ways to spot phishing attempts, look at the examples below to find out how.
There are common tactics that a hacker will use to trick you, these tend to be:
- A psychological ploy to cause anxiety (your account is suspended, your card is blocked, your password needs to be reset)
- Pushing you to take urgent action (clicking the link, opening an attachment, transferring money to a "safe" account)
- Luring you to believe the text, call or email is genuine by pretending to be from a trusted entity, by inserting a company name or logo
Look at the phone number or email address it is coming from. If in doubt, do not proceed and contact the company or person directly.
Emails can be forwarded as an attachment to us to check (select the 3 dots, select Forward as Attachment)
Personal emails can be forwarded to report@phishing.gov.uk
Text messages can be forwarded to 7726 (free of charge)