Charities are particularly vulnerable to online fraud

Charities are being warned about a rise in phishing scams and are urged to be vigilant.

The warning comes from England and Wales’ Charity Commission which has published a report revealing charities are reporting up to 8,000 of these scams a month.

Phishing is fraud via digital platforms including email, text and viruses. Many report being subjected to fraud via phone too.

The commission urged any charity affected by a phishing scam to report it to Action Fraud – the national cyber crime authority.

Preventative actions charities can take to protect against phishing scams include making sure “software has up-to-date virus protection” not clicking on links or opening attachments “received in unsolicited emails or SMS messages” and installing “software updates as soon as they become available”.

A Charity Commission spokeswoman said that the alert was “just a general reminder” to charities that phishing scams are “still happening”, and was not being issued because of any specific spike in phishing scams being targeted directly at charities.

Over £1.2bn is lost to fraud this way every year in the UK.