Legitimacy of Emails Received
Over the past couple of months we have received many queries from clients receiving suspicious emails from government agencies in regards to their financial information.
Example of email received
For this particular example, clients have been receiving letters from ASIC for the renewal of their company. Consider the following:
- If POOLE GROUP have set up a business name on your behalf, your ASIC correspondence will always come from Poole Group as we are the registered agent. If you receive anything direct from ASIC, please delete immediately.
- If YOU have set up your own business name, you will receive ASIC correspondence direct to you. Please follow the actions below to recognise the legitimacy of the email.
Action
When receiving an email that advises to you click a link, please ensure you HOVER over the link to see if it’s related to the information it advises. If it DOES NOT RELATE TO THAT SENDER, in this case ASIC, please delete immediately.
Other emails to look out for
Please be extra careful with emails relating to sensitive information sent from ‘government’ agencies or financial bodies. This includes:
- ATO
- ASIC
- Banks
- Transport Departments
- Power/Energy Bills
- General Invoices
If you follow the same action above by hovering over the links, you will be able to recognise a legitimate vs a non. legitimate email. Below is an example of a legitimate email.
If you feel that the link displayed is legitimate but still wary, as en extra precaution, go direct to to the website (not via link) on your internet browser and log in directly. Most government/financial agencies will have a ‘secure mail/messages’ section that lets them keeps you up to date with your account which is what is usually emailed to you.
In the case you have accidentally opened the attachment, contact your IT department immediately and advised them of the email that you received and the type of attachment you opened – even if it looks like nothing has happened to your system.
If you are suspicious of any emails relating to your financial information, please do not hesitate to contact us.