What is phishing?
Phishing is an email scam designed to trick you into handing something over to a fraudster, whether that’s money or your personal information such as bank account numbers or online banking passwords.
How to spot a phishing email
Phishing emails can often look very convincing. At first glance they might look very similar, even identical, to a genuine email from a trusted company, using the same logos, layout and language that you’re familiar with.
The important thing to look out for is that they’ll often ask you to do something which can benefit the fraudster.
They could include messages like these :
"Your account has been blocked. Please click the following link to verify your account log-in to gain access."
"Your account has been compromised. Please change your password using the following link."
"To claim your refund, please click the following link.”
Phishing emails can contain viruses that infect your computer once a link is clicked or an attachment is opened. These are particularly dangerous and are often used by fraudsters to lead victims into more elaborate online scams. Be sure to never click on anything that looks suspicious.
Learn about pharmingHow to check if an email is genuinely from NS&I
- We’ll never send you a link in an email going directly to our login page, or ask you to enter your online banking details
- Emails from NS&I will often have ‘National Savings and Investments’ as the sender name and will be from one of the following email
addresses:
- outgoing@email.nsandi.com
- outgoing@nsandi.com
If you have a concern about an email that appears to be from NS&I, please send it to us straight away at: