BT never send emails to customers asking for any kind of sensitive information.
If you receive an email that looks like it’s been sent by BT asking you to supply sensitive information (for example, your bank details, password, account details etc.), the email is likely to be a phishing scam.
What is phishing?
Phishing is attempting to trick people into providing sensitive personal information such as password, account or bank details.
Suspicious emails, often have some clues that you can look out for:
- Are you being asked to do something like validate account credentials or re-activate an account?
- Is it requesting personal data, billing account numbers or bank details?
- Is it suggesting you owe us money despite you having recently paid?
- Did the email come out of the blue?
- Is the grammar right, are there spelling mistakes?
- Does the sender's address match the organisation that supposedly sent the email?
On a PC you can normally hover over any links to show where they really go.
What to do if you received a scam email
- DON'T click links or open attachments in the email; these may infect your computer with a virus.
- DON'T reply to the email, or unsubscribe from the emails, this will simply confirm your email address.
- DON'T ring any phone numbers in the email.
- If you have clicked a link in the email, don't supply any information on the website that may open.
- Forward the email to phishing@bt.com, then delete it.
Unfortunately, company logos can easily be forged in an email, making them look realistic.
If you need to check your account, the best way is via our website but NEVER trust or use any of the contact details or links in the suspicious email:
- Manually type business.bt.com into your browser to ensure you get to our genuine site.
- Log into 'My Account' and you'll be able to see a copy of the messages we've sent you.
You'll also be able confirm your balance and if any payments are actually outstanding. - If still in doubt, you can contact us using the Live chat link or telephone numbers from our help pages.
Remember - Think before you click.
What to do if you’ve submitted information
If you’ve already submitted some personal details because of a phishing scam, contact us immediately. You must act quickly to protect your email account.
For more information on phishing, identity theft and fraud, find out how to keep your personal details safe online.
Does BT Business Email protect me against spam and viruses?
We do our best. No spam filtering is 100% accurate but we'll filter out most of the spam and viruses which might end up in your inbox.
This can be disabled, if there’s an issue and sometimes we might get it wrong so we'd recommend you log into your email every couple of weeks and check the Junk folder in case our spam filter has been a bit over-zealous and got the odd legitimate email.
What is spam?
Spam is advertising material sent and received by email without the recipient either requesting the information or expressing an interest in the material advertised.
Just like receiving junk mail in your letterbox, spam is junk mail that arrives in your email inbox. In addition to being unwanted and annoying, spam often includes advertisements for dubious products, get-rich-quick schemes, quasi-legal services or pornography.
Unsolicited bulk email
The word ‘spam’ applied to email means ‘unsolicited bulk email’.
- 'Unsolicited’ means that the recipient has not granted verifiable permission for the message to be sent.
- ‘Bulk’ means that the message is being sent as part of a larger collection of messages, all having substantively identical content.
A message is spam only if it is both unsolicited and bulk.
Spam is an issue about consent, not content. This distinction is important because legislators spend inordinate amounts of time attempting to regulate the content of spam messages and in doing so, encounter free speech issues without realising that the spam issue is solely about the delivery method.
Some email servers/services use email content filters to quarantine spam or direct spam to ‘junk’ folders. You can do this with BT Business Email plus Organise and Plus Organise and Share.
How did I get on a spam list?
There are many ways that 'spammers' collect email addresses allowing them to build mailing lists. Although you need to be careful where you leave your email address - at web sites, in newsgroup posts and when chatting, sometimes you'll end up on a distribution list without even exposing your address. It's common for spammers to guess potentially valid addresses by taking a common Username and adding valid domains to it. For example, chances are there will be a "bob@" at just about any provider's domain. If you use email, chances are you're going to get spam.
Tips for reducing the amount of spam you receive
- Never send a reply to a spammer with a 'remove'/'unsubscribe' request. This only confirms that your address is valid, and you'll probably get even more spam.
- Be careful about who you give your address out to.
- Create separate email accounts, one for trusted colleagues, friends and family, and another for when you buy goods on the internet or when you post messages to public forums.
- Configure your email client to accept email only from specified addresses.
Spam protection available with Office 365
Microsoft Office 365 Small Business uses Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP).