We have seen an increase in malicious activity targeting our customers during the pandemic, whereby criminals are phishing for your credentials. We have noticed an increase in email phishing and, recently, SMS\text message phishing campaigns.
When a phishing campaign targets our customers via email, we do our best to quickly block these emails from making it through to our customers, but we can only react, so some emails may make it through before we manage to stop them. We also work in the background to raise abuse reports with other domain registration and hosting companies to successfully identify the domain and hosting providers of the criminals phishing links and act to get these malicious sites taken down. However, this process can take a little bit longer as we are working with 3rd parties.
When a customer receives an SMS\text message there are limits to action we can take to block these messages from being received. We are not a mobile phone provider, so can’t take steps to block the messages from being received. However, we can work with 3rd parties in getting the domains and hosting of the malicious sites taken down that claim to be one of our brands if we have sufficient intelligence to undertake this kind of abuse reporting activity. What we can do is remind our customers of the legitimate contact we will make via SMS\text messaging and ask customers to always be vigilant to unexpected communications.
We have recently updated our internal processes to react to these phishing instances more quickly and will continue to review these processes to best support our customers.
Please remember:
- Always check the sender of an email or text message for a valid address or number.
- If you’re not expecting the message, reach out to the service provider mentioned directly from contact details you are already familiar with or gained from known trusted sources.
- Once you have contacted the service provider directly, delete any suspicious emails or texts.
- Never click on links in emails or text messages. Log into control panels or account management sites from links you already have or have got to from known trusted sources.
We will only send a text message or email if it relates to a service renewal or you have opted into marketing communications. Please log in to your control panel and check your contact preferences and marketing options if you are unsure what you have specified with us.
If you are still unsure, you can contact a member of our team by phone to discuss your account via +44(0)345 363 3637, or search for our company online and get the number from our website verifying that the number is accurate and from a trusted source.
Please get in touch with us if you have any questions.