Councillor Mark Wheeler

Phishing scam aimed at Nationwide customers Most people will have received e-mails which appear to be from banks and similar organisations requesting personal information, these types of e-mails are used by criminals attempting  to obtain bank and other account details for fraudulent purposes. This sort of scam is known as ‘phishing’ and is a form of identity theft. North Yorkshire County Council Trading Standards and  Regulatory Services have received many reports of attempts to get account details from customers from all the high street banks as well as passwords for e-bay accounts and the like. The most recent one that has been brought to our attention is headed in the subject field “Nationwide Bank account Security Verification needed” Our advice is to be extremely cautious about any requests for account details. The banks will not contact customers in this way to obtain account details so the best response is to treat all such messages with suspicion, not to give any personal information and to contact your bank. Reporting such e-mails These e-mails can be reported to the relevant banks or organisations they are purporting to be from.  Most banks and similar organisations have a section on their websites for reporting such scams. There is also a section on the “banksafeonline” website to report such scams.  Useful websites  http://www.banksafeonline.org.uk/ This is a  website run by APACS, the UK’s payments association. Bank Safe Online is the UK banking industry’s initiative to help online banking customers stay safe online.   www.getsafeonline.org     This website is  sponsored by government and leading businesses and provides expert advice to protect everyone against internet threats.  If you need further advice please contact Trading Standards on details below.  Regards North Yorkshire Trading StandardsTel: 01609 534868Fax: 01609 771696E-mail: business.advice@northyorks.gov.uk  You have been sent this email because you completed the Trading Standards Questionnaire to receive Trading Standards News Flash Messages. If you would like to un-subscribe from further information from Trading Standards, please send an email to trading.standards@northyorks.gov.uk marked unsubscribe and you will be removed from the list.     Regards North Yorkshire Trading StandardsFor clear, practical consumer advice call Consumer Direct on08454 04 05 06 or visitwww.consumerdirect.gov.uk