Students in the UK have been advised to remain vigilant against scams as they await the student finance loan payment date in January 2024.
According to the Student Loans Company (SLC), scammers may attempt to trick unwary students into providing their personally identifiable information (PII) through various social engineering schemes, including phishing emails, texts, or unsolicited phone calls pretending to be from legitimate organizations such as the SLC or Student Finance England.
More recently, the SCL has been made aware of an ongoing phishing campaign impersonating the company where scammers tell students to expect a call from a private number to verify their payment details.
“The email is being sent from an @outlook.com address and is not an official SLC email. SLC will never proactively contact students to verify bank details ahead of a payment date,” the SCL explained.
Moreover, students will never be urged or provide PII or financial information via unsolicited emails or texts.
“With the sophistication of scams increasing, students need to be vigilant. For students who started study in the autumn, we are reminding them to stay alert to any unusual or suspicious communication about their next payment,” Alan Balanowski, Risk Director at Student Loans Company said. “And for those starting their courses in January, this may be the first time they have had any kind of payment from SLC, so it’s important that they are aware of what to look out for.”
Use Bitdefender Scamio to find out if any unsolicited correspondence is a scam. Have a chat with our AI-powered scam detector or submit a screenshot or link via your web browser or Facebook Messenger to ensure your safety and protect the digital you against all kinds of scams.
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Alina is a history buff passionate about cybersecurity and anything sci-fi, advocating Bitdefender technologies and solutions. She spends most of her time between her two feline friends and traveling.
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