I have purchased curtains from a company called Avis Nets in the past, so when I received an email claiming to be from them a couple of days ago, I wasnt too concerned.

The email was as follows:-

Dear citizenB

 

Thank you for shopping with us. We have 10 special gifts for our valued customers and you are one of them!

 

We give this hamper "A special love" to you absolutely free! You pay only for delivery Please check your shipping address and complete the delivery (they then have a link).

 

Here they have my address in full.

 

Hamper Contents Medium Hamper (460 x 310 x 195mm)

 

The Chocolate Tree - Raspberry (70g) Sarah Gray's Straw & Champ Jam (300g)

Nevis Bakery Dundee Cake (360g)

Cairnsmhor Raspberry Oat Crunch (150g)

Bollinger Rose Champagne (750ml 12% vol)

 

Item Cost

Goods (£ 122.49) FREE (the £122.49 is crossed out in the email)

 

Postage: Standard UK £ 6.49

VAT Included where appropriate

Total £ 6.49

As it didnt appeal to me, I ignored it and just deleted it.

But when I received a 2nd email today I contacted Avis nets using the link that I have for their website and using one of their contact forms.

The company responded very swiftly - nothing to do with them, advising me as follows..

"MY CUSTOMER DATABASE HAS BEEN COMPROMISED ALONG WITH CUSTOMER DETAILS FROM OTHER WEBSITES AND BEING SENT OUT WITH MY LOGO"

I logged onto Action Fraud and followed the instructions, forwarding the emails on to whomever will not deal with them.

Is there anything else I need to do?

If you haven't clicked any links within the spoof emails, you should be fine. It may just be phishing or it could contain malware.

I would be more concerned that it was only AFTER you contacted Avis Nets that they confirmed a breach. They should have told people first.

If you haven't clicked any links within the spoof emails, you should be fine. It may just be phishing or it could contain malware.

 

I would be more concerned that it was only AFTER you contacted Avis Nets that they confirmed a breach. They should have told people first.

I did wonder whether they should have advised me as soon as they were aware of the problem.

I didnt click on any links and have given my computer a good scan/clean and everything appears to be ok.

I would also let the ICO know of that response of customer database compromised by company

I would also let the ICO know of that response of customer database compromised by company

I have also received a standard/automatic response from NFIB

 

Thank you for your email. Unfortunately we are unable to respond to each email individually; however we are grateful for the time you have taken to make this submission. If you have forwarded a [problem] email to us, you do not need to do anything further. The information you have provided will be recorded and held with us in order to contribute to the wider intelligence picture and assist us in considering the most appropriate action required.

Occasionally, we may forward the emails we receive directly on to appropriate industry partners or banking organisations. This will allow for appropriate and timely action, whilst ensuring that the most effective preventative action can be taken.

Reporting fraud

If you believe that you may have been the victim of fraud and would like to make a report or need guidance on fraud and how to protect yourself, please go to www.actionfraud.police.uk or call 0300 123 2040. Action Fraud is the UK’s national fraud reporting centre. It takes reports of fraud and provides advice and support. Reports to Action Fraud can be made anonymously. To report a crime that is not fraud related please contact your local police. Police force contact details can be found at www.police.uk

 

Consider checking with that email address with https://haveibeenpwned.com/ as if the breach is listed they will confirm what information is 'out there'.

They also allow for domain based searching, so if you have your own domain it will tell you all the mailboxes within that domain that have been compromised.

Thanks for that bazza, interestingly, it does confirm that I have been breached at some time.. but by Adobe back in 2013 !!

I have just checked, mine was also Adobe back in 2013. only happened once when Adobe got hacked.

I would be more concerned that it was only AFTER you contacted Avis Nets that they confirmed a breach

it seems a few are/have been holding back telling their customers until sometime later. wasn't talk one recently? (delete if incorrect)

And Yahoo, Ford

And Yahoo, Ford

yes, forgot about that one, 'In September, Yahoo said hackers had managed to steal personal data on more than 500 million users during an attack in late 2014..'

At least someone has been 'caught'..

'The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has charged four people, including two Russian state intelligence agents, for their involvement in a massive hack of Yahoo that affected half a billion accounts....'

http://www.pcworld.com/article/3181311/legal/four-charged-including-russian-govt-agents-for-massive-yahoo-hack.html#tk.rss_security

I have just checked, mine was also Adobe back in 2013. only happened once when Adobe got hacked.

Me too. Sure that i never received any notification from Adobe about this. But as i only ever used a free product with them, all they would have is my email address.

the fraudsters want you card details, hence the "you only pay the postage " hook.