Central Bedfordshire Council: What is phishing and how can you avoid it?
Date Added: 14/10/2022
Survey shows phishing considered serious problem
This month is Cyber Security Month. Cyber crime has been identified as an emerging issue by the Community Safety Partnership, and as a result the team have committed to raising awareness of cyber crime and how residents can protect themselves.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggests that people are more likely to become a victim of cybercrime and fraud than any other type of crime.
Earlier this year, our Safer Communities Team carried out a survey about cyber crime to find out what our residents were most concerned about. Almost 200 people responded to the survey, and 88 per cent of people identified phishing as a problem.
What is phishing? And how can you spot it?
The National Cyber Security Centre describes phishing as: ‘…when attackers attempt to trick users into doing 'the wrong thing', such as clicking a bad link that will download malware, or direct them to a dodgy website.’ Phishing is mainly used to describe attacks that arrive by email.
Action Fraud have information on their website about how to spot a fake email, and what to do if you receive one. Some of the things they advise you to look out for include:
• Spelling and grammatical errors in the email
• The use of a non-specific greeting like ‘dear customer’ instead of your name
• A request for personal information such as your username, password or bank details
You can also look at the email address it’s been sent from – does it tally with the trusted organisation’s website address, or has it been sent from a completely different address or a free web mail address?
Reporting phishing
If you have received an email which you’re not quite sure about, forward it to the Suspicious Email Reporting Service (SERS): [email protected]. If you are a victim of cyber crime, you can report it to Action Fraud, the UK's fraud and cyber crime reporting centre.
By reporting instances of phishing, authorities may be able to protect and prevent other people from being affected.
Want to find out more?
If your community group would like to find out more about cyber crime and some steps you can take to prevent it, our Safer Communities Team can visit you and give a talk.
To find out more, email: [email protected]
You can also find out more on the National Cyber Security Centre website.