West Midlands residents urged to remain vigilant and report phishing scams
West Midlands Police has joined a national awareness campaign which is urging the public to stay vigilant against phishing scams.
The force is asking people to stay vigilant against scams and report suspicious emails and text messages as part of the campaign by Action Fraud.
The campaign is focussed against phishing scams, which include email fraud (‘phishing’), text scams (‘smishing’), and fraudulent QR codes (‘quishing’), and are designed to trick people into revealing personal or financial information.
Since the launch of the Suspicious Email Reporting Service (SERS) in April 2020, more than 41 million phishing scams have been reported, leading to 217,000 scams being removed from more than 393,000 website pages by the National Cyber Security Centre.
A spokesman for West Midlands Police said: "We’re supporting Action Fraud’s latest phishing awareness campaign, urging the public to stay vigilant against scams and report suspicious emails and text messages.
"Action Fraud has identified streaming services, technology companies, and telecommunication providers among the most impersonated industries in phishing emails, with fraudsters also posing as UK government schemes to deceive victims.
"We encourage everyone to forward suspected phishing emails to report@phishing.gov.uk and forward suspicious text messages to 7726, a free service provided by mobile network providers.
"This helps remove scam websites and prevent fraudsters from contacting more people. Since April 2020, more than 27,000 scams have been taken down after being reported via the text service 7726.
"Spotting fake messages or identifying genuine calls can be challenging. Criminals are quick to adapt, using advanced technology to craft emails, texts, and calls that appear legitimate. Their goal is to deceive and steal personal or financial information.
"Reporting phishing emails plays a crucial role in the fight against fraud. Each report helps the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau better understand the evolving tactics used by scammers.
"It also enables the identification and takedown of malicious links found in phishing messages, disrupting criminal activity.
"The more reports we receive, the more people we can protect from becoming victims."
