I received an email today purporting to be from the Chelsea Building Society with the subject line "We're making some important changes". It is very professional and at first I thought it was genuine as it correctly quoted part of my postcode.
It was addressed to my yahoo account and originated in Germany. None of the links in the email are listed on the Chelsea Building Society website. I've forwarded the email to their security department.
Fortunately I did not click any of the links!
Nothing new there. Millions of emails like that get sent out every day. I get them all time.
You are certainly well advised to check with the security department, but note that financial institutions are very bad about good security practices, and may well send out material with domain's of third party suppliers (this is or was common with online 3D security verifications).
So, don't follow a link unless the BS confirms it is safe, but don't be entirely surprised if they do.
I'm certain it was a fake as it did not address me by name. I guess that it must have got the postcode as a result of the yahoo hack.
Your advice about links is spot on. Even when I do know the email is genuine I use the link already bookmarked in my browser rather than trust one in the email.
I do too. But this one was quite convincing because of the postcode. On the other hand it did not address me by name which was a give-away!
I missed the part where you said it included part of your postcode. That makes it much more interesting as it looks as though they might have connected your email address with the area you live. On the other hand, it could have just been a lucky guess.
Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.
Ask the community — no account required