Phishing - messages from Banks, Building Societies

One of the more common and dangerous types of spam is that of the phishing email. Unlike some spam messages, these have the potential to cause problems to the unwary through the unwanted exposure of personally sensitive information or damage to their computer.

Phishing?

Phishing is an attempt by malicious parties to acquire sensitive information by deception. This is often done by sending message purporting to be from a trustworthy organisation like a bank or building society. A fairly recent variation is the claim of an unpaid invoice from an unknown company.

No bank, building society, financial organisation (or any website with one iota of common sense) will ever send its' user a message requesting they click on a link to confirm their account details or to supply their credit card details.

Messages with Attachments

Some phishing messages may also include attachments. These are often claimed to be invoices or other legal documents and are normally encapsulated in a compressed/ZIP file. These attachments are nearly always malicious software (aka Virus or Malware) and are placed within in ZIP files in a crude attempt to bypass AntiVirus protection and our banned attachments.

If these messages get through our filter, do not attempt to open them. Just delete the message.

Can I do anything to stop receiving them?

Although our spam filters should intercept the majority of these messages, some may still get through and will be found in your spam folder.

What should I do?

Quite simply, delete the message.