Online Security - Phishing Emails

Phishing is a technique that criminals use in an attempt to steal personal information. They will send thousands of emails to unsuspecting people, claiming to be from a company - such as British Gas. These emails will usually look very convincing, but in fact aren't legitimate.

Most often a phishing email will be poorly written – spelling and/or grammatical mistakes, address you as “Dear Customer” or similar and invite you to update or confirm your details.

The email will provide you with a link to a website in order to capture your personal information - that website will also look very much like britishgas.co.uk, but unless you can see our website address in your browser’s address bar, then it isn’t our site (the address must be at the beginning, rather than this - http://www.someaddress.com/britishgas.co.uk/).

How can I tell if an email is from British Gas?

We send emails for a number of purposes - notifications about your online account (such as when a new bill is available, to confirm a payment or other transaction, or to help you reset your account password) and to promote offers or products that we think may be of interest.

Our emails will always be personalised to you, often quote your British Gas account number (where the email relates specifically to your account) and will only provide links back to the britishgas.co.uk website.

You can verify links in our emails by hovering your mouse over them. If you see a website address appear which is not britishgas.co.uk then please report it to us.

How to report a phishing scam

If you think you have received a scam email referencing British Gas please Contact Us online or on 0800 048 0202*

Get Safe Online

For more information on how to protect yourself and your family online, visit Get Safe Online.

*Calls may be recorded and/or monitored for quality assurance and compliance purposes.

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