Warning as criminals exploit cost of living crisis to target the public with energy rebate scams
Energy prices are set to increase on 1 October 2022 and in the last two weeks, more than 1,500 reports have been made to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) about scam emails purporting to be about energy rebates from Ofgem, the independent energy regulator for Great Britain.
In the two weeks from Monday 22 August to Monday 5 September 2022, a total of 1,567 phishing emails related to this scam were reported via the Suspicious Email Reporting Service (SERS).
In this instance, the reported scam emails claim that the recipient is due an energy rebate payment as part of a government scheme and provides links for the recipient to follow to apply for the rebate. The links in the emails lead to malicious websites designed to steal personal and financial information.
All the reported emails display the email subject header “Claim your bill rebate now” and the criminals behind the scam are using the Ofgem logo and colours to make the email appear authentic.
