Halton Borough Council is warning residents of the risk of fake bank emails.
Recently we have seen fake bank emails addressed to bank customers of Lloyds Bank. The emails look genuine (see below) but the key difference is email address.
By checking on Lloyds Bank’s website (via a web search, not by clicking on any links in the email), it states
“All our email addresses end with lloydsbank.co.uk. There should never be another word in between lloydsbank and .co.uk. This is a genuine email: name@mail.lloydsbank.co.uk.
This is a scam email: name@lloydsbank.mail.co.uk.
This means the email below is a scam and you can simply delete it.
Halton Borough Council’s Executive Board Member for Trading Standards, Cllr Dave Cargill, said: “The same principles apply to most banks and building societies. If you have any concerns about your bank/building society accounts, then please log in through your normal means and not via any email links or attachments.”
From: Debit Card Disputes <DebitCardDisputes@lloydsbanking.com>
Date: 8 July 2020 at 16:23:11 BST
To: consumer email address
Subject: You have received a secure message from Lloyds Banking Group. Please set up a passphrase to view it.
One of our colleagues has sent you a secure message.
From: Debit Card Disputes
Subject: D-21258858
This is the first secure message you have received from Lloyds Banking Group. You need to set up a passphrase to view it, and any secure messages we send you in future.
To view your message:
– Set up a passphrase using our secure portal
If you or somebody you know has been caught out by a scam or fraud please contact one of our specialist officers, Linda or Sue on 0151 511 8785 or 0151 511 8775, who are already working with people in Halton who have lost thousands of pounds to scams.
If you need advice on anything else please contact the Citizens Advice Consumer Helpline or 0808 223 1133