Public urged to be ‘extra vigilant’ as 32 million phishing emails reported
More than 32 million phishing emails have been reported to the Suspicious Email Reporting Service (SERS), with more than a third of these reported in the past year, new figures reveal.
The reports have led to more than 329,000 websites addresses being removed by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).
Action Fraud, the national fraud and cybercrime reporting service, launched a national phishing awareness campaign on Monday (June 24), as reporting reached its highest level since SERS launched.
New data shows a rise of 44 per cent year-on-year, with almost 11,611,400 reports made to SERS in 2023, up from 8,074,200 reports in 2022.
Alongside emails, there has also been a huge number of text messages reported to 7726. This is a free service, offered by mobile network providers, allowing customers to forward suspicious text messages and help the removal of malicious URLs from messages.
In March this year, more than 60,000 malicious websites were removed as a result of being reported using 7726.
Claire Webb, deputy head of Action Fraud, said: “When fraudsters go phishing for valuable information, anyone could be a target. They will hook an unknowing victim with a genuine-looking email, in a bid to get them to share personal information, or bank details.
“Year on year, the amount of people reporting phishing emails and texts is growing.
“Action Fraud is urging everyone to be extra vigilant of suspicious-looking emails landing in their inbox, which could contain malicious links leading to unknown websites.”
SERS was launched by the NCSC and the City of London Police in April 2020, to enable the public to forward suspicious emails and report any malicious website links. Since its launch, more than 30 million reports have been made to the service.
Action Fraud says ‘phishing’, ‘quishing’ or ‘smishing’ is when criminals use scam emails, text messages, QR codes, or phone calls to trick victims.
“Whether it’s an email asking you to “verify” your bank account details, or a text message claiming you’ve missed a delivery and are required to pay a redelivery fee, the goal is usually the same – to trick you into revealing personal and financial information,” it said.
In 2023, a doctor from London lost more than £150 to a fake email claiming to be from TV Licensing. The email claimed that they needed to renew her TV licence as soon as possible.
“What made the phishing email so believable was that the victim’s TV licence had recently expired and the link in the email led to a fake TV Licensing website that replicated the real one,” said City of London Police.
“Fake emails and text messages can be difficult to spot as criminals are constantly creating genuine-looking messages.”