"Fair and Honest Property Advice" - Are they scammers?

IAmWales · 21 September 2017 at 4:03PM

Ace, steve, please contact the ICO. They are the people that will investigate data breaches. I wouldn't trust anything E&M tell us!

steveh60 · 21 September 2017 at 4:14PM

IAmWales, I did 'Chat' with ICO who advised.......
"Potentially, there is a question here as to how Fair and Honest Property advice have obtained your details. You could write to them and ask how they acquired your details. To make a subject access request you may wish to use our template, which can be found in our guide to requesting your personal information. If you are not satisfied with the response they provide then you can report the concern to our office and we can make an assessment."

I am more confused/concerned how she has obtained my email address if E&M have never held it though?? And how does she know I have an E&M account?

In the unlikely event you are reading all this Sarah Lane, perhaps you would like to post a response here??

robatwork · 21 September 2017 at 4:32PM

Ken135 wrote: »

I've received this message but the email address it wasn't sent to isn't the one I use for E&M

You may want to reword/correct that as I spent 30 seconds not working out what you meant. ITYM "was"

maxs · 21 September 2017 at 4:34PM

AceOfClubs, I had a look at the LinkedIn page yesterday. It was empty - just had her name. No connections, no details about education, etc.

Evie_Sherwood · 21 September 2017 at 7:12PM

I have had the email also and I suspect that this person is a former employee of Estate & Management and has had access to our information. I replied to it and told them that there is a government body called Tw0-Tier Tribunal (I think) which will provide arbitration in case of a dispute about these types of fees.
Keep vigilant!
Evie

Cougar · 21 September 2017 at 7:21PM

Hi.

I'm a moderator on the aforementioned singletrackworld forum.

We received an email about this yesterday from someone claiming to be a security expert. I replied to them and haven't yet received a response, so I've posted the text of the email on the forum. You can read it here (but please see my disclaimer).

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/just-got-an-email-about-estates-and-management-unreasonable-fees-anyone-else/page/2?replies=44#post-8729832

Hope this helps.

fasty123 · 21 September 2017 at 9:11PM

I also received this FAHPA email.
It was sent to an obscure (non-guessable) and unique email address that was known only to myself and E&M.
Even someone hypothetically hacking into my emails would not know the significance of that address.
It's evident that the data was stolen from Estates and Management database or one of their subsidiaries.

I deliberately assign different addresses to each organisation that I regularly deal with, so that I can both track where my spam comes from and switch it off. It can be quite an eye-opener. I regularly receive phishing emails to a similar unique address only ever shared with a major high street bank. Despite numerous other people highlighting the same data breach, it seems that there is nothing that can be done to sanction those who fail to safeguard our data. On that occasion, the response from the ICO was that there was "insufficient evidence to take any action".

Peter_Parsons · 21 September 2017 at 11:58PM

I use the same e-mail approach as fatsy123 and also received this e-mail (to an address known only to E&M and myself).

I've also received the following by e-mail from EM Operations:

[FONT=&quot]On 20th September, we became aware that email addresses from our database had been accessed by an unauthorised person(s). We are currently investigating the extent of the problem. At present we believe only email addresses have been compromised and we have received approximately 90 emails from leaseholders relating to this issue. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]We have received emails from some of the homeowners affected speculating that E&M sells personal information to commercial third parties. Contrary to this speculation, we do not. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]In the event that home owners are contacted again by any individuals or third parties offering to sell products or services relating to E&M we recommend you do not respond to it and inform E&M at [EMAIL="communications@e-m.uk.com"]communications@e-m.uk.com[/EMAIL][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]We treat the security of all confidential data with the utmost seriousness. A thorough investigation is now underway and we have notified the Information Commissioner’s Office and the police.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]We thank you for your understanding.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Operations Team[/FONT]

e_un48 · 22 September 2017 at 12:55AM

Thanks ACE - any reply from E&M yet ?
Ian

mooney33 · 22 September 2017 at 10:42AM

From May 2018 the new general data protection act comes into force. Any data breach must be notified within 72 hours. Data breaches can be fined up to £20 million or 4% of global earnings......ouch!

Moving forward with this; recently the government started a review on leasehold properties and escalating fees. Does anyone know which MP started this as they may be interested in looking at the type of fees discussed in this forum.

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"Fair and Honest Property Advice" - Are they scammers?

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