Phishing has been a problem for a while now, and that problem is growing at the moment due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Attackers are capitalising on people’s desire to know more about what is going on, launching new cyber scams on a daily basis.
There’s more information on this at our Cyber Security Advice during Coronavirus page.
There’s also a helpful new service to assist with the increasing numbers of phishing emails that are circulating.
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has launched a service to enable you to report suspected phishing emails to them – the Suspicious Email Reporting Service (SERS).
All you need to do is forward the email to report@phishing.gov.uk.
Emails that are reported will be analysed, including any websites that the email links to. Where the NCSC suspect that it is malicious, they may:
- Attempt to block the email address that sent it, so it cannot send any more
- Attempt to remove malicious websites, so links to them won’t work
- Work with partners to raise awareness of commonly reported emails, so more people know what to look out for
The NCSC won’t come back to you to confirm whether the email was phishing, or what has been done, but they will review every message they receive.
More information about the Suspicious Email Reporting Service can be found on the NCSC website.
If you want to learn more about phishing – what phishing is, the different types of phishing, how to spot phishing, and ways to prevent phishing – head over to our free Guide to Phishing Emails.
Access our tools, advice and resources to help during the Coronavirus pandemic
