"Spear Phishing" Fraud Alert

“Spear-phishing” is a technique whereby criminals specifically target senior members of staff in order to obtain financial or personal information.

We understand that the emails are being sent from spoof email accounts, which appear to be from the Headteachers email account (or similar senior staff) this enables the criminal to appear genuine and obtain the schools financial information. Two schools have already reported to Internal Audit receiving “spear-phishing” emails.

We ask that all members of staff be aware and pro-active when responding to email requests, particular when the email is asking for financial information or payments to be made, and to understand that the email address that appears in the ‘from’ field of an email is not a guarantee that the email is from the person or organisation that it claims to have originated from.

If staff receive an email request appearing to originate from a senior member of staff requesting financial information or a payment be made please check the request is genuine by contacting the member of staff (by telephone or in person) and checking they sent the email.  Also, please do not click on embedded links in the email as these can provide verification to the fraudster that your email address is active and you may receive more phishing emails in the future.

Contact Details

If your school receives an email of this kind please report to:

Duncan Warmingon
Email: Duncan.Warmington@kent.gov.uk
Telephone: 03000 41 60 95

or

Shelley Etherton
Email: Shelley.Etherton@kent.gov.uk
Telephone: 03000 41 60 68