Batelco, the leading telecom service provider in Bahrain, has issued a warning to its customers to be on the alert regarding reports of fraudulent emails.

A number of Batelco customers have reported receiving emails asking them to ‘Resolve their accounts’ where a link in the email redirects customers to a phishing site that has the look and feel of Batelco eServices, but is in fact nothing to do with Batelco.

Batelco eServices is VeriSign and ISO certified and functions fully on secure mode with the SSL certificate, it said in a statement.

It is extremely important for customers to be aware of any site address that they are directed to and the security of the certificate before they attempt to log in or provide information, it added.

An example of a phishing attempt is an email message asking you to "click here" to verify your information. Phishing scams are crude social engineering tools designed to induce panic in the reader.

These scams attempt to trick recipients into responding or clicking immediately, by claiming they will lose something (e.g., email, bank account) in order for the scammers to obtain the customer’s login credentials or credit card details.

Such a claim is always indicative of a phishing scam, as responsible companies and organisations will never take these types of actions via email.

“To avoid phishing scams, be suspicious of any email message that asks you to enter or verify personal information through a website or by replying to the message itself. Never reply to or click the links in a message,” advised Batelco Group general manager Media Relations Ahmed Al Janahi.

“If you feel the message may be legitimate, go directly to the company's web site - i.e., type the real URL (address) into your browser, or contact the company to see if you really do need to take the action described in the email message,” he added.

For the highest level of trust and security while visiting web sites, it is recommended to make sure that the address (URL) of the site that you visit matches the address that you would expect.

“Lack of awareness can lead to such incidents but with some education into what to look out for and by taking some simple steps, people can be spared a great deal of inconvenience,” added Al Janahi.

“The posted information includes a glossary of all the terminology customers may come across such as phishing, virus, Trojan, spyware, etc. as understanding all this jargon can be very difficult for many users. We have also included guidelines and useful tips on how to protect your system,” Al Janahi said.

Batelco also offers Inet Security Suite, a software package that can be installed on PCs or Laptops to protect the systems from a variety of threats. The software package also provides an advanced parental control feature which ensures maximum child and family safety on the Internet. – TradeArabia News Service