Help and Support

Keeping your personal details safe online

Fraudsters will always be on the look out for ways of getting access to your personal information - it's valuable and can be used for identity theft.

The easiest way to get your details is through a scam email. This is called phishing, which is an attempt to trick you into giving your account, banking, log in, password or other sensitive information.

The emails will look like they've been sent from us, your bank or an online service you use and will ask you to reply with your account details, or to click a link to a website, to enter them.

We'll never send you emails asking for your account, password or log in details.

Luckily, you can stay safe online by following a few simple guidelines:

• Always keep your BT account number, log in and password information secure.
• Keep all your other personal information, such as bank details, private at all times.
• Make sure you've an up-to-date firewall & anti-virus program installed on your computer. You'll find information on BT PC Security here.
• Don't click any links in an email you're not sure about.
• If you do click a link and you're taken to a website, don't enter any information - close it down immediately.
• Don't reply to a scam email or try to contact the senders in any way.
• Don't open any attachments in a scam email.
• Delete scam emails from your computer.
• If you get an email or visit a website that doesn't seem right, trust your instincts and leave.

Think you've already submitted personal details? Act quickly to protect your account, by getting in touch with the organisation or business involved, immediately.

If the phishing email looked like it was from us and you've submitted your BT password, user name, account number or any other sensitive information, change your password straight away and contact us now.

Want to report a suspected phishing email? Simply forward it to abuse@bt.com, and we'll do the rest.

To find out more about internet safety and the latest scams, the following organisations work with police, government and fraud agencies:

• e-Crime - what your business needs to know (from the Met Police) (1.07MB)
• Protecting you and your business from Identity fraud (from the Met Police) (1.99MB)
• Action Fraud
• Get Safe Online
• Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG)

You can also try our Security, antivirus and spam help pages and see our safety and security blog.

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