Madam, I would like to reply to a letter in your previous issue from Mr Terry Snow regarding some peculiar emails he received which appeared to have been sent by the Santander group.

These emails are almost definitely fakes and I would highly recommend deleting them!

Additionally I thought Mr Snow might appreciate some pointers on scam emails as, being a software company, we often get asked about these ourselves:

1 – They are generally known as "phishing" emails and are usually attempting to trick you into typing personal information into emails or websites.

2 – A genuine email will often include your name in the subject line. Eg, "Mr Snow, your statement is ready to read online." Although this is not a cast iron rule!

3 – Never click on a link in an email if you can avoid it, especially emails that could be fakes. It's much safer to type the address for your bank/building society manually into your web browser.

4 – Never reply with any personal details in an email, especially if you don't recognise the sender. Some scam emails often promise a cash reward if you help them transfer money into the country. Or sometimes they're offering pharmaceuticals, watches or software at unbelievable prices. If it's too good to be true, it definitely is!

Also a recent trick by scammers to watch out for is that they may actually telephone you, often with the pretence that you may have a virus on your computer that they have "detected" remotely. They usually ask you to go to a website which, as I'm sure you've guessed, will really install a virus onto your computer. If anyone calls with this kind of pitch it's best to hang up right away!

Finally for additional computer safety I would recommend:

1 – Keeping your computer up to date with windows updates (and any other program updates.)

2 – Installing and updating a virus scanning program (there are many free virus checkers available these days, such as Microsoft Security Essentials)

3 – Be extremely wary of any pop-up adverts that warn you of viruses on your computer. These are always fakes.

I hope that helps Mr Snow somewhat and of course any other readers that are concerned about the emails they are receiving.

Andy Yates, GMP Software,

Broad Street, Ross