In this age of “fake news”, an accusation spoken by folks with perhaps a novel interpretation of the truth, it would seem that the authenticity of communications is drifting into realms where what is real and what is imagined to be real are forming an unintelligible mix.
The same would also be true of identity. An email, rather like a letter of old, portends to be from the person signing off. And yet criminal ne’er-do-wells are becoming increasingly competent at pretending they are other than they are.
Most taxpayers will have received emails, supposedly from HMRC, requesting personal information and bank details so a “tax refund” can be made to their account. For the unwary, those who take things at face value, this type of phishing (spam) email communication can lead to compromised personal data issues and loss of funds.
It would seem that those intent on pretending to be other than they are, is on the increase.
We Transfer – who provide a facility to transfer large files across the internet – have been hijacked by criminals recently, who use the We Transfer name to lure individuals to part with their private login details, for Outlook, Hotmail, Gmail, or other email accounts. This information is then used to lock the duped recipients out of their accounts.
Unfortunately, we cannot assume that an email is a genuine communication. We can only assume the opposite and act accordingly.
If an email is unexpected and not in response to previous communications on the same topic then you should probably ignore any requests to login or follow links and instead pick up the phone or email your usual contact to make sure the communication is genuine.
You will be relieved to see that this blog post contains no links, or requests to part you’re your contact details, although I would be very happy to speak with you if you want to discuss the suitability of our services for your firm.
If, by mistake, you do part with password details, and are unsure if this was a wise move, be sure to change the password before individuals less interested in your privacy start their nefarious activity.
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