While digital technologies bring enormous opportunities, they also bring new threats and vulnerabilities. Cybercrime and cyber-attacks represent a major and growing threat to our economy and society.
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1. How to spot spam / fraudulent emails?
Using ourselves as an example, there are two different kinds of spam / fraudulent emails you might get:
- Those with the subject line "enquiry from visitscotland.com"
- Those stating the email comes from VisitScotland - when it does not
The email will try to sound authoritative and pressure you to quickly send out your personal information or transfer money.
Also be wary of being told to work with unknown booking sites. These sites can be fake and divert customers to scam online card payments.
Dos and Don'ts
-
Do
- Always verify that an email is sent from official email address before engaging with it
- More info on what to do when you receive a spam email or text
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Don't
- Never feel pressured to reply to an email on the spot. Real businesses will always give you ample time to respond to any query
- Never give out personal information without verifying the sender. Real businesses will often require you to fill in your personal data on a secure form on their website. Not in emails
- Never click on hyperlinks or open attachments when something about an email gives you the impression that it might be fraudulent
This is how a popular con works:
Fraudsters contact your business with a request for a booking spanning a few weeks, usually 28 days.
They accept your booking cost and offers to pay by cheque. The fraudsters then send a cheque for a higher amount, usually £1,000 more. They claim it is a mistake and ask for you to refund the overpayment. Only after you send the refund do you realise that their cheque has bounced.
2. What to do if you receive a spam email or text?
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Scam emails
If you are ever unsure of an email you receive from us – or think is from us – please get in touch:
- Contact your Industry Relationship Manager
- Email customer services
- Forward suspicious emails to the relevant government email address
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Scam texts
Forward suspected scam texts to your business’s mobile network provider to 7726.
If a scam text claims to be from your business’s bank, then you should also report it to them.
3. Useful advice on these topics
Research tells us that the public and many small organisations often see cyber crime and fraud as a single issue. In practise, different criminal entities can be involved in different activities. Sometimes they can try to defraud you directly. Other times they can try to steal your clients' personal data.
In any case, a strong cyber security is key to both keeping criminals out and to deter them from attempting to target you in the first place. That's why we have provided some useful links to help you bolster your cyber security:
Useful sources
Cyber Aware
cyberaware.gov.ukCyber Aware has been developed with the UK’s authority on cyber security and provides the simplest, technical advice for the public and micro businesses to help protect themselves against the cyber threat. It includes a section on dealing with suspicious emails, phone calls and text messages.
Cyber resilience guide
bgateway.com/A cyberattack could affect your business reputation and revenue and breach your data protection duties. Getting the basics of cyber resilience right should incur little or no cost. And changing behaviour and processes as well as technology will build up layers of defence.
Take Five
takefive-stopfraud.org.uk/This national campaign offers straight-forward and impartial advice to help everyone protect themselves from preventable financial fraud. This includes email deception and phone-based scams as well as online fraud – particularly where criminals impersonate trusted organisations.
Get Safe Online
getsafeonline.org/This UK Government-funded, free and trusted resource provides practical advice on how individuals and businesses can protect themselves on their computers and mobile devices, and against fraud, identity theft, viruses and many other problems encountered online.