Protecting your savings

PHISHING

Don't be taken in by e-mail cons

A common type of e-mail fraud is Phishing. Phishing is the process where fraudsters (impersonating a well established financial organisation) send false emails in an attempt to trick the people who receive them into revealing their personal details. Birmingham Midshires will never ask you to send your personal details via e-mail. If ever you receive an e-mail that asks you to provide your personal information by clicking on a link please do not access any links, disclose your sign-in details or reply - even if the e-mail suggests that you need to take immediate action.

Phishing is not the only way that criminals try to use e-mail for fraud. E-mail has been used to make job offers, recruit people for money laundering and trick people into visiting sites that exploit weaknesses in their computer to download Trojans. Don't be conned by convincing e-mails offering you the chance to make easy money or provide your personal details. Remember Birmingham Midshires will never ask you to confirm your personal details via e-mail.

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Watch out for fraudulent e-mails

You can report a Birmingham Midshires phishing email at www.antiphishing.org as well as forwarding the e-mail to us at abuse@birminghammidshires.co.uk. Be very careful if you receive an e-mail from an unknown or dubious source. Be especially cautious if these e-mails contain attachments.

WHAT TO DO IF YOU RECEIVE A PHISHING E-MAIL

• If you still have the original e-mail, you can assist us by providing a copy of the e-mail by following the procedure below.
• If you are using Microsoft Outlook or some other mail handling software, open the e-mail, click on ‘file’ and then 'save as'.This should allow you to save the e-mail as a separate file.
• Don’t reply to the e-mail.
• Send the file you have just saved to abuse@birminghammidshires.co.uk (This allows us to preserve the source data from within the e-mail and makes it easier for us to track down the originator of the e-mail).
• Delete the e-mail immediately after sending it to the above, without clicking on any links or replying.
• Additional information is available at www.antiphishing.org

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Bank Safe Online

For more advice and a step by step guide to staying safe online visit www.banksafeonline.org.uk a website launched by APACS the UK payment association working on behalf of the banking industry.

Calls may be monitored and recorded for security and training purposes. 0845 numbers may not be available outside the UK. Calls to 0845 numbers from BT landlines will cost a maximum of 4p per minute, plus a 6p call set up fee. The price of calls from other telephone companies will vary. The call price is correct at today's date. Lines are open between 8.00am and 8.00pm, Monday to Saturday.