30 September 2024
The AA is warning consumers not to fall foul of a phishing email which claims they have won an emergency car kit.
A small number of emails began last week, however more fake emails have been sent as the week progressed. The AA has taken a number of steps to safeguard their customers, all consumers and worked with the police* to raise awareness of the scam.
As well as maintaining strong security policies and systems that people can trust, The AA has introduced so called Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI), so that consumers seeing adverts through their email account know a real advert from a fake one.
“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.”
The AA’s own IT security team regularly reports fake websites which pretend to be the real thing, and provides advice to consumers on how to keep their data safe online: Security and fraud | The AA.
Darren Desmond, The AA’s chief information security officer, said; “The saying goes ‘imitation is the sincerest form of flattery’, but in this case it’s an awful impression.
“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’.
“We urge people to report every scam email they receive, but if they accidently open one then running antivirus software on their device, patching operating systems and applications, and Using Multi Factor Authentication (or MFA as it’s widely known), typically through an app, are great ways to reduce the risk. If personal or financial details have been compromised, then people should contact the police or report via the Action Fraud Police website.”
* Action Fraud social media warning messages: Action Fraud on X: "🚨Watch out for fake AA emails claiming that you have won a free car emergency kit. ✅ Report suspicious emails by forwarding them to: [email protected] ℹ️ Your reports have led to the removal of 352,000 malicious websites. #PhishyFridays https://t.co/wHIU7Utumy" / X