A new phishing scam, more deceptive than others around, is currently being circulated to thousands of people’s emails.

Like many similar scams before, it claims to be from UK firms asking for money from the recipients. The key difference is the inclusion of the recipient’s home address appearing to make user’s more susceptible to falling for it.

You and Yours reporter Shari Vahl was one of the first on the team to receive an email.

“The email has good spelling and grammar and my exact home address…when I say exact I mean, not the way my address is written by those autofill sections on web pages, but the way I write my address.

“My tummy did a bit of a somersault when I read that, because I wondered who on earth I could owe £800 to and what was about to land on my doormat.”

She quickly realised it was a scam and did not click on the link.

Read more at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-35977227

It is warned that clicking on the link contained within the email will install malicious software which encrypts the user’s files and will demand a monetary fee to unlock them.

The advice on offer is to delete the email if you receive it, and to report it to Action Fraud  – the national cybercrime reporting centre.

Be Cyber Streetwise is a cross-government campaign, funded by the National Cyber Security Programme. They aim to measurably and significantly improve the online safety behaviour and confidence of consumers and small businesses (SMEs).

Get Safe Online is the UK’s leading source of factual and easy-to-understand information on online safety. Their website offers advice on how you can protect yourself, your computers and devices, and your business against the likes of fraud, identity theft, viruses and other potential online problems.