St Peter's Parish News
Thursday 1 January 1970
Scam emails
Many of us received fraudulent emails last week purporting to be from one of our former parishioners. This is a salutary reminder to us all to be vigilant when receiving emails! This email contained the following message: “Sorry for botherring you; are you accessible via email for a few minutes? Cannot make a call!”
Seems innocent enough? This is quite a common email scam – someone sends an email claiming to be unable to make a phone call or suffering from laryngitis, asking you to to reply. Do not respond to the email – it is not who you think it is! If you reply, the hacker may send you something more harmful, such as a link to a computer virus. This can lead to all sorts of security problems – a hacker may then take over your own email account to send more scam emails to all your friends, or even get access to your online banking. So remember – if you get a suspicious email:
- Do not reply
- Do not click any links
- Do not open any attachments
If your email address has been used to send fake emails:
- Change your email password immediately
- Run your anti-virus software to check your computer hasn’t been compromised.
Need advice? Herts Police occasionally run events at Berkhamsted Library where you can ask experts about staying safe online. There’s also some useful advice at this website:
www.getsafeonline.org 
