Trading Standards are warning students to be on their guard following national reports of several new phishing scams.

Students may have been received emails claiming to be from Student Finance England, the Student Loans Company, or the Department for Education.

The emails aim to trick the recipient into clicking on a link contained in the message to disclose personal and banking details. Please be vigilant and never disclose any personal or bank details in response to unsolicited email requests.

How to protect against phishing attacks:

• Never send passwords or other private and sensitive information such as bank account numbers in an e-mail. If you receive an email from a company that is requesting information and you think it might be legitimate we suggest you find their phone number from a reputable source and call them to confirm its authenticity and to then provide the information.
• Be wary about clicking links in emails, links can be misrepresented, send you to malicious sites and provide verification that your email address is active.
• If you do receive an email with a link in hover your mouse cursor over the link (but don't click it!) A preview of the URL should appear, pay close attention to this URL as that is where the link will take you. Make sure the spelling is correct and it isn't misspelt.
• Avoid opening attachments in emails if you were not expecting them, even if it is from someone you know.
• Don't respond to messages if you don't know the sender.
• If following a link to a website you should look for "https://" and a padlock icon in the address bar before entering any information.
• Use anti-virus software to help protect your computer. Some phishing emails can contain malicious software.
• If you have any doubts about the authenticity of the email please contact the ITS Helpdesk.

What you should do if you think you have already entered information such as your password into a link or replied to a phishing email:

• Change your University login credentials, you can do this by searching for "passwords" in the Warwick search box. The autocomplete link will pop up and take you to the relevant page.

• We don't recommend password reuse however if you have reused the password for any personal accounts you should immediately change them, examples are:
  • Online shops such as Amazon, eBay, etc.
  • Personal email accounts.
  • Social Media sites such as Facebook, Twitter etc.
  • Online banking websites.
• Contact the ITS Helpdesk, if possible forward the original email as an attachment to helpdesk at warwick dot ac dot uk.
• If you entered any banking information contact your bank as soon as possible.

More information can be found on the Action Fraud website and Get Safe Online. If you've any questions, or if you suspect that you may have received a phishing email, then please contact the ITS Helpdesk on 024 765 73737 or helpdesk at warwick dot ac dot uk. More information is available on the ITS Email and Phishing page.