Cyber Safety – Scams and Online Threats

Scammers can sometimes impersonate Harworth Group or its employees, using email and/or letters to make contact and communicate. They do this in order to make demands for money or to phish for sensitive information.

What to look out for

These scams can take many forms and constantly change but they often originate from an email. Some examples areas to exercise caution are highlighted below. Please note this list is not exhaustive. We would encourage you to always exercise caution with respect to any communication that seems suspicious.

Fraudulent emails and letters

Third parties can attempt to impersonate Harworth Group or its employees using email addresses provided by Gmail, Outlook, Hotmail or by using a domain name bearing similarity to harworthgroup.com. Fraudulent messages may include a copy of Harworth’s branding. Scammers may provide false contact telephone numbers bearing the names of genuine Harworth Group employees, in order to appear legitimate.

Fraudulent domain names

Scammers may use domain names that at first glance, may appear similar to genuine Howarth Group domain. Genuine emails from employees at Harworth Group will only use the domain name @harworthgroup.com

Request to update sensitive information

Our bank account details will NOT change during the course of a transaction, and we will never advise you of changes to important business information or ask you to change business payment details via email. If you receive such an email, please telephone your Harworth Group contact (on a telephone number that you already have) before any payment is made.

Correspondence purporting to be from Harworth Group

We have been made aware of unsolicited phishing emails and calendar invites which purport to be from Harworth Group employees, which are actually coming from @harworthgroupplc.com (our domain is www.harworthgroup.com). Please be aware of any such fraudulent emails and meeting invites that may appear to come from Harworth Group employees, potentially requesting sensitive information or payments, particularly those containing urgent requests.

What should you do?

If you receive a communication purporting to be from Harworth Group that you believe may be fraudulent, or you wish to clarify the authenticity of any payment requests, invoices or names of our employees please contact enquire@harworthgroup.com immediately. DO NOT correspond with the sender or click on ant links in the suspicious email.

Alternatively:

  • If you’ve been the victim of a scam, fraud or online crime, you should report this to Action Fraud at www.actionfraud.police.uk or by calling 0330 123 2040.