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email s.mclean@dailyrecord.co.uk with all your consumer queries

I WAS a victim of a “phishing scam”. I filled in some bank information in an email from what I thought was from a company that provides me with a TV subscription.

It turns out it wasn’t and £200 was withdrawn from my bank account. Do I have any recourse of action for this? AS WITH most scams, the scammers can be quite convincing in their method of gathering information or “phishing” for information, so don’t feel silly.

A reputable company should never request financial information to be sent via email.

In addition to this, the scammers also have ways of setting up cloned websites where you could be tricked into entering the login details that you would use on the legitimate website.

In these circumstances, where a link is provided, you should avoid using this and access your online account by going to the service provider directly and querying whether the request is in fact legitimate.

You can do this by going to the usual portal on the official website for the provider in question.

You should speak with the bank directly to ensure your account is secure and your bank are fully aware of the situation.

By reporting this promptly you might stop the same thing happening to someone else.

In relation to any potential refunds, you should discuss this directly with the bank.

Indicate that you have fallen victim to a phishing scam and outline the specific details of the communication and transaction date(s) and time(s).

Depending on your bank’s policies, they may provide you with a refund.

I hope you get this issue resolved.

And remember, these tricksters can be very convincing. I HAVE been receiving a lot of unsolicited mail from a catalogue company that I purchased from recently and I cannot seem to get them to stop sending me advertising.

It’s getting to the stage I am receiving two and three per week. Not only is it annoying, it’s a complete waste of paper. How can I get this to stop? SOMETIMES we can forget to opt out of mailings when purchasing from a company.

The information on opting out can often be quite misleading and is often found hidden in the small print.

On the other hand, this could be entirely the fault of the company that you ordered from, and this mail overload needs to be dealt with ASAP.

Under Article 21 of the 2018 GDPR Regulations, you have the right to object to your information being processed or used, including for profiling purposes for direct marketing.

If you have spoken to the company in question in relation to this already, you should now write to them sending a letter by recorded delivery, or an email with read receipt.

It may be something as simple as the company having difficulty finding your information to remove you from mailing lists.

Ensure that you state your name, address, any reference numbers quoted on the original order paperwork, as well as the fact that you are receiving multiple mailings and wish to be removed from all mailing activity within one month of the date of your letter.

I hope this resolves the issue, and I feel your pain. The very same thing happened to me a couple of months ago.