Be aware! How to spot and navigate email phishing scams

In today’s climate, hacking and email scams are unfortunately becoming a common occurrence with phishing scams becoming the most popular.

Phishing scams are typically sent over email but can also be sent via text or through social media and are used to trick recipients into handing over personal information. They will typically be very convincing, using company branding or logos, or a link to what appears to be a legitimate website.

Unfortunately, we have had recent incidences where our customers and other recipients received emails that were impersonating CBS, trying to obtain private information.

Sadly, phishing scams are becoming all too common, with many tools online allowing companies and individuals to be impersonated. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to stop and control, so the best thing to do is raise awareness and share helpful information so that no one falls victim to email phishing scams.

A recent article from ‘News from Wales’ discussed the current wave of scams targeting SMEs.

It discussed information disclosed from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), revealing that the number of fraud victims has risen 25% over the past two years. This figure includes 4.5 million fraud incidents that have taken place over the past year.

The ONS has also revealed that 61% of all fraud incidences were cyber related.

So, what can you do to not fall victim to a phishing scam?

• When receiving an email, check if the sender is coming from a legitimate email address.
• Think before you click any links in the email.
• If they are asking for your information, ask yourself why?
• Contact the company the email has come from to confirm it is genuine.
• If you can, try and keep informed about the latest techniques for phishing and other email scams.
• You can also reduce the likelihood of falling victim to a phishing scam by thinking what information your share online.

Also, did you know that if you receive or fall victim to a phasing email, it can be reported? The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has shared the best resources on how to report scam emails; which you can find here.

Reporting suspicious email or fraud attempts helps everyone. The NCSC revealed that by August 2022, 13 million reports were made regarding suspicious emails, resulting in the removal of 95,000 scams across 174,000 malicious websites.

We here at CBS want to confirm to everyone that we have the systems and procedures in place to ensure we are a secure and solid business that does everything that it can to protect our clients and system users. Our systems are highly secure and accredited to ISO270001, and ISO22301 standards.

We want to assure you that security is taken very seriously at CBS but ultimately some things are out of our control. The choice to share data is down the individual but we want to remind you of the risks; raising awareness is in everyone’s best interest.

Do you want to discuss our services and how we operate? Speak with us today on 01443 440080 or email us at info@cbsscreening.co.uk