People living in Telford have been advised to stay on guard as a scam email purporting to be from British Telecom (BT) is going around the region, the Telford Police says.
The police force is now investigating the email scam, which according to one of the victims looked exactly like an email from BT. Elizabeth Rogers, who lives in Much Wenlock, said she received an email that appeared to be legitimately sent by the telecom provider, as it featured the company’s logo and therefore seemed genuine. The email stated that it is an automated message sent in relation to a security issue, she said.
The email claims the user’s BT account information needs to be validated and that the account has been suspended until the user provides the information requested in the email, with a link at the bottom. Once the user clicks on the link, a box appears where personal details can be filled in.
Rogers says that she has been a customer of BT for many years and she suspected that the email may be a scam as BT had never requested such information previously. The woman later contacted BT and told the company about the scam email, with the telecom provider confirming that the message wasn’t sent by them. BT advised Rogers to call the Police Fraud Action Team.
The issue has been reported, says Chris Ammonds, a spokesman for West Mercia Police. People should not respond, provide personal details nor click on any links within such messages. If people have concerns about the nature of any messages in their inbox, they should contact the company of origin, Ammonds added.