Organized fraudsters are targeting students’ first loan instalments with a barrage of phishing emails, weeks before the start of the new academic year.
The scam emails purport to be from Student Finance England, and falsely claim that students will “lose or delay” their September payment if they fail to offer up personal information.
The emails also contain links which when clicked could potentially lead to malicious software being installed on the recipient's device.
The Student Loans Company has warned students not to disclose any details or respond to the emails, and to avoid clicking on any links they might contain.
Hundreds of thousands of students across the UK are currently awaiting their A-level results, to be released next Thursday, and new students are likely to be a particular target.
Fiona Innes, head of counter fraud services at the Student Loans Company, said:“Online fraudsters are aware that freshers are starting university for the first time next month and are targeting them, continuing students, and their sponsors with emails and texts requesting personal and banking details to access their finance.”
She warned that phishing emails are sent in batches, so further waves should be expected.
Aside from the red flag that a request for personal information raises, other signs that an email is a scam include an impersonal greeting such as “Dear Student” and spelling or grammatical errors.
Threats such as “failure to respond within 24 hours will result in your account being closed” are another warning sign, designed to create panic and elicit a quick response.
The Student Loans Company never requests personal or banking details by email or text message.
If you receive a suspect email, report it to the Student Loans Company on Student Loan Company, and to Action Fraud here.
If you are unsure whether an email, text or phone call is genuine, get in touch with the Student Loans Company to confirm. If it is a phone call you are worried about, hang up and call the Student Loans Company from a different phone.
0 comments: