Students can be targeted online by fraudsters expert in the art of phishing. Phishing happens when criminals send very convincing emails that appear to come from legitimate organisations. The number of students reporting these incidents to the Student Loans Company has significantly increased in the last few years.

The Student Loans Company's top two messages to students are:

• We will never ask you to update your bank details by email
• We will never ask you to verify your student account details by email

Student Loans Company's Fraud Manager, Heather Laing, said:

"Students don't receive their student funding until they have registered and attended university but we want students to be aware that these scam emails are in circulation now and they should not respond to these.

Ignore messages that tell you to 'validate your account' or provide any personal, security or banking details as the Student Loans Company will never ask you to confirm your information in this way.

Fraudsters could steal your details when you transact online. They do this by tricking you - making you believe you're sending these details to the Student Loans Company. In fact, the details could be going straight to the fraudsters instead - even if it looks like you're on our website. To defend your personal details, you need to use antivirus software and a firewall.

For further information, please contact: Rona Cameron/Breea Keenan - 0141 306 2120

Student Loans Company's phishing guide, top tips and details on what to do if you receive a suspicious email can be found at: bit.ly/e3E2xT

Top tips

Student Loans Company's Top Five Tips to Avoid Phishing:

1. Be suspicious of any urgent requests for personal or financial information.
2. Be aware: Phishing scams are common at the three main instalment payment dates in September, January and April.
3. Always ensure that you're using a secure web site when submitting credit card or other sensitive information.
4. Prevention: Your email details may have been taken from a social networking site so avoid disclosing your email address or make sure you hide it on your page.
5. Check the quality of the communication. Misspelling, poor punctuation and bad grammar are often tell-tale signs of phishing.

What we won't ask you

The Student Loans Company will NEVER:

• ask you to update your bank details
• ask you to verify your account details
• ask you to click a link, always type the address yourself: www.direct.gov.uk/studentfinance
• ask you to answer combinations on the same screen i.e Your Customer Reference Number and Password on the same screen
• provide you with a choice of secret questions. We will only ever ask you the question you gave us.
• ask you to update items such as date of birth or provide your email address password.

Notes to editors

The Student Loans Company provides financial assistance for people who want to go to university or college, offering loans and non repayable grants for studying and living. We also provide loans for tuition fees, which are paid directly to the university and college. We have more than 4 million customers: 1.1 million student customers and 2.9 million customers no longer in higher education.

The company has recently joined CIFAS, the UK's Fraud Prevention Service. We will now be able to screen out false identities and by searching the CIFAS National Fraud Database, double-check whether an applicant has committed fraud in the past. We will then be able to record the details on the National Fraud Database, helping more than 250 member organisations to prevent any further fraud committed by the same individual. During the past five years, CIFAS Member organisations have prevented over £4.1 billion of attempted fraud by sharing information in this way.