News: Fasthosts Scam Email Alert

A number of customers have recently received emails purportedly from Fasthosts telling them that:

"Wе؜؜؜ а؜؜؜rе؜؜؜ infо؜؜؜rminɡ؜؜؜ у؜؜؜о؜؜؜u thа؜؜؜t у؜؜؜о؜؜؜ur а؜؜؜с؜؜؜с؜؜؜о؜؜؜unt hа؜؜؜ѕ؜؜؜ bе؜؜؜е؜؜؜n tе؜؜؜mр؜؜؜о؜؜؜rа؜؜؜rilу؜؜؜ ѕ؜؜؜uѕ؜؜؜р؜؜؜е؜؜؜ndе؜؜؜d duе؜؜؜ tо؜؜؜ а؜؜؜n е؜؜؜х؜؜؜tе؜؜؜nѕ؜؜؜iо؜؜؜n nо؜؜؜tifiс؜؜؜а؜؜؜tiо؜؜؜n. О؜؜؜u؜؜؜r b؜؜؜i؜؜؜l؜؜؜l؜؜؜i؜؜؜n؜؜؜ɡ؜؜؜ ѕ؜؜؜у؜؜؜ѕ؜؜؜t؜؜؜е؜؜؜m h؜؜؜а؜؜؜ѕ؜؜؜ d؜؜؜е؜؜؜t؜؜؜е؜؜؜r؜؜؜m؜؜؜i؜؜؜n؜؜؜е؜؜؜d t؜؜؜h؜؜؜а؜؜؜t t؜؜؜h؜؜؜i؜؜؜ѕ؜؜؜ ѕ؜؜؜е؜؜؜rviс؜؜؜е؜؜؜ hа؜؜؜ѕ؜؜؜ е؜؜؜х؜؜؜р؜؜؜irе؜؜؜d а؜؜؜nd hа؜؜؜ѕ؜؜؜ n؜؜؜о؜؜؜t b؜؜؜е؜؜؜е؜؜؜n r؜؜е؜؜؜n؜؜؜е؜؜؜w؜؜؜е؜؜؜d."

Firstly, don't worry. It is a scam. If you are one of our customers, while your hosting or domain name is indeed provided by Fasthosts, communications will always come via me.

One way to tell whether a link is genuine is to hover over the link (don't click on it, of course). Most email apps will show you where the link goes if you hover over it. In this case it seems to go to a website called: nouveaudk.com (which has probably itself been hacked).

While the link in this case is relatively complicated with lots of dots, the core domain is always the part just before the first forward slash.

e.g. http://co.uk.yourdomainname.org.nouveaudk.com/fast?info@yourdomainname.org

A legitimate email from fasthosts would always have fasthosts.co.uk/ or fasthosts.com/ in the web address.

Likewise, if you hover over the "from" address or right click it, it tells you where the email was sent from. In this case while it says "Fasthosts" the from email address is actually no.reply@boatandbusiness.com (which presumably has been  hacked)

A legitimate email from fasthosts will come from an email address @fasthosts.co.k or @fasthosts.com.

If you are concerned, please forward the email to me and I will let you know whether it is genuine. Under no circumstances should you make a payment following a link from these emails.

Hope this helps.