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Nuisance email

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Phishing is a cyber crime where criminals contact people by email, telephone or text message, pretending to be a legitimate organisation. They try to get people to provide personal information such as bank details and passwords, and often include links that once clicked, download a virus to your computer and steal personal information. The information is then used to access accounts and can result in identity theft and financial loss.

Be aware of suspicious messages and emails and do not click on links or attachments in them. Never respond to unsolicited messages that ask for your personal or financial details.

If you do receive a suspicious email, this can be reported to National Cyber Security Centre via their Suspicious Email Reporting Service (SERS). See SQ680 and SQ749 for further information regarding fraud and see the links in Related Information to report any suspicious or fraudulent emails.

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You should make a note of the website address and report this to your local police station, via their non-emergency 101 number.

It will depend on the circumstances as to whether the police are able to take any action. There will be a specialist department within the Force that will gather all information and take appropriate action.

If you come across any websites that are inciting racial hatred or other hate crime (see SQ643), please report it to the True Vision organisation. To visit their website please see the Related Information.

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If you receive two or more nuisance e-mails/texts that are non-violent in nature, this could amount to an offence of harassment (defined below). The word "harassment" does not have a legal definition, but the words alarm, distress or torment, are the best words used to describe it.

The incidents must be related and must not be two isolated incidents. The further apart the incidents are, the less likely there is to be an offence of harassment. However, all the circumstances of the incident will be taken into account when determining if an offence has been committed.

The law takes into account the "reasonable person" test. Basically, this means that if it was felt that a person of reasonable firmness (i.e. the average person on the street) would not be alarmed or distressed, the offence is not committed. The offender must also be aware that the course of conduct they are pursuing would cause the victim to be alarmed or distressed.

Example:

A and B were partners, A finishes the relationship but B is not happy. B sends 30 e-mails/texts over the course of a week begging A to reconsider. A is distressed by this course of action. Note, however, if A was not distressed and ignored the e-mails/texts, then no offence of harassment would have occurred.

 

If you believe you have suffered this type of harassment, there are two possible ways of dealing with it. You can contact the police who will pursue the matter or alternatively, you can pursue it yourself through the civil courts.

If you feel that you have suffered from harassment and would like police involvement, please contact Police Scotland by dialling 101.

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The best way to stop unsolicited e-mails is to protect your e-mail address and only give it out to those people you wish to receive e-mails from.

You can also contact your Internet Service Provider who may be able to block any future messages from the sender.

A further step is to forward the unwanted e-mails to abuse@ISPname (i.e abuse@AOL.com etc) stating that it is unwanted mail. If the sender persistently sends unsolicited mail then the ISP may be able to block all future e-mails from this person.

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