E-mail scam

FRAUDULENT EMAILS AND WEBSITES

Advice for cardholders
You may have recently received e-mails or telephone calls claiming to be from ‘World Heart Federation’.

Please be aware that World Heart Federation is not involved in these e-mails or telephone calls – this is fraudulent activity by criminals. World Heart Federation will never e-mail or telephone to ask for personal, account or security details.

What is phishing?
'Phishing' is the term used for the activities of criminals who create and use fraudulent e-mails and associated websites. These are designed to look like e-mails and websites of well-known legitimate businesses, financial institutions, and government agencies.

These e-mails and websites are created in order to deceive internet users into disclosing their bank and financial account information or other personal data such as mother’s maiden name, addresses, usernames and passwords. This information could then be used for criminal purposes, such as identity theft and fraud. The threat from phishing is small, but it is always better to be alert.

How can you tell which emails are fake?

Emails from the World Heart Federation will always end with @worldheart.org. If the email is in any way different to this, it is likely that it is a scam. Unfortunately, it is possible for scammers to disguise their emails with @worldheart.org. If you receive an email with these endings that you are suspicious of, especially if it asks you for personal details or directs you to an unknown website, please contact us and we will follow it up.

Sometimes the emails the scammers are sending include real names and contact details of World Heart Federation staff, so please do check the address they are coming from.

What you should do

If you receive an e-mail claiming to come from World Heart Federation, requesting personal account information, do not provide the details. Instead, you can forward the message to us for further investigation.