The AA has alerted consumers to a new phishing email from scammers that claims people have won an emergency car kit.
The emails started last week and then increased as scammers got on the bandwagon.
Action Fraud has warned the public to watch out for the hoax and report suspicious emails to [email protected].
The AA is working to safeguard customers along with all consumers, and is raising awareness of the scam alongside the police.
The motoring services specialist has introduced ‘Brand Indicators for Message Identification’ (BIMI), which makes sure brand-controlled logos are used on emails within supporting email clients so that consumers seeing adverts through their email account can spot a real advert from a fake one.
The AA also continues to provide strong security policies and systems while its inhouse IT security team provides advice to consumers on how to keep their data safe online and also regularly reports fake third-party websites.
Darren Desmond, chief information security officer at the AA, said: “Our job is to help keep your show on the road, which is why we want to spread the message and help customers spot this shocking scam. We continue to invest in the best security systems to safeguard our customers and their data, which is why most emails pretending to be from us will end up in your spam folder. Emails from us will have the domain name ‘theaa.com’.”
Desmond said anyone accidently opening a scam email should run antivirus software on their device, patching operating systems and applications.
He also urged consumers to use multi-factor authentication (or MFA as it’s widely known), typically through an app to help reduce risk.
Desmon added: “If personal or financial details have been compromised, then people should contact the police or report via the Action Fraud police website.”
The AA has also urged people to report every scam email they receive to Action Fraud.
Other emerging scam trends in recent weeks include fake parking text messages, initially being sent as if from councils and now also from the DVSA too.
