Soapbox

Since the start of the year the spam filter on my work email account has blocked assorted phishing emails purporting to come from Coop Bank, Halifax, HMRC (1 or 2 each), and 16 purporting to come from Santander! I've never had any dealings with Santander or whatever banks Santander has eaten up along the way, but why so many? Are Santander customers particularly prone to being caught out by phishing scame?

Before you ask... I have to check my spam folder regularly as our filter is so vicious it can block out legitimate emails.

The 'returns' a phishing scam would get from emailing customers of long-established high street banks diminishes over time, but Santander is a relatively new bank in this country, so I guess it pays for a scammer to make an extra effort to get hold of as much Santander account info as possible, hence the volume. I understand that RBS will pass to Santander soon, so I'd assume that the more gullible RBS account holders might respond more readily to anything that looked like a message from Santander.

If your email account has a spam/scam notifier, then use it, rather than just deleting stuff. The quicker an email is notified that way, the quicker it will get deleted from the servers and never get anywhere near anyone's inbox. And it goes without saying... never EVER 'unsubscribe' from spam emails, because that just proves to the sender that you're alive and kicking, and you'll get ten times as much spam for your troubles.

My settings take care of the bulk of spam/scam emails, so I never even see them. Of those that get through, I barely even register them and just delete them in passing.

Put bluntly... scams date from the dawn of time... and people either spot them or they don't. What I find utterly incomprehensible is how someone, apparently hard-working and intelligent, who has amassed huge amounts of money over a lifetime, will readily hand it over to a complete stranger on the most flimsy of contacts.

Quite honestly... if someone needs to offload vast amounts of cash in a hurry, please stuff an envelope and send it to me. Unlike a scammer, I'll gratefully acknowledge receipt and even send you a nice thank you card!

what's your address?

and when will you be out of the country next?

i have a number of email addresses. the one i use for general web stuff entertains me to hundreds of spam emails. my personal one doesn't.

always use a disposable email address when using the web.

Unfortunately it's a work email account and my email address is in the public domain. I receive next to no spam on my hotmail account which I only use for personal stuff. It's only a nuisance because I have to do regular checks in the spam folder for stuff that's been erroneously condemned as spam.

I'm just amused that Santander appears to be regarded as an easy target.

If your daft enough to bank with Santander....

(said only because I did once and they were impressively bad even compared to the international midget-limbo bar set by the others...)

Email clients on Mac's inherently get less spam?  I did not know that.

I'll buy one at the weekend - I hope you are correct.

The solution is simple; get yourselves an AppleMac.

Not when you're stuck with whatever they give you in work!   As I said, my hotmail account gets virtually no spam at all.

 My solution is just not to respond, even if the Email "comes" from my own bank.

 After a month or so I stop getting the "spam". I presume they then must come from same place, or have links with each other

 My own bank has a "distinctive" way of sending emails and only to let me know my monthly statment is available.

Spam is a real problem but I can stop for anyone who sends me the following:

1.  Email address
2. Post Code
3. Mother's Maiden Name
4. Bank card security code
5. etc., etc