Scam emails have been sent out to some members, and others in the industry, pretending to be from the GCA and requesting payment. Please ignore this if you receive it. Many thanks to those of you who have brought this to my attention, allowing us to immediately notify all our members. Any queries please contact us. Emails from the GCA will always be from our usual email addresses.
A thorough analysis of our systems revealed that the GCA was not in any way compromised and that the data was obtained from an external source. Having investigated the source of the email and reported the abuse, we have now successfully had the offending domain closed down.
We all need to be aware that phising scam emails are becoming increasing sophisticated, and once they have your email address they will keep trying. A couple of members have recently had issues with hackers sending emails to colleagues within their business, appearing to be internal emails, requesting money transfers.
Please always check an email if something doesn’t look quite right, or if you are asked for money to be transfered to a new account. Also ensure that you have robust systems within your business for staff to follow, to ensure that there is a second check before large payments are authorised, using a different means of communication such as WhatsApp or a phone call.
To report scam emails contact the government National Cyber Security Centre
