Please remain vigilant and take necessary precautions so that you do not fall victim to scams.

We have been made aware of a current scam where fraudsters falsely impersonate members of university staff and approach suppliers for quotations for equipment, either via email or phone and request acceptance of 30 day payment terms.

Once the quotation has been provided by the supplier, a falsified university purchase order (which resembles an authentic university purchase order) is emailed to the supplier, usually instructing delivery to a non-university address. The goods are delivered, but the supplier never receives payment and is unable to retrieve the shipped goods.

• Spelling or grammatical errors in correspondence

• An incorrect domain name or email address – ensure you double check the email address which the correspondence came from to ensure it originates from the University’s genuine email address (which ends in @kcl.ac.uk).
  
  
• Fraudsters may use the name of a genuine employee, but hovering over the email address name may reveal that the originator's email address is different to a genuine University email address.
  
  
• An incorrect delivery address – check if the address is listed on the official King’s College London website.
  
  
• Please be aware that some fraudsters may initially use a genuine University address but later redirect this to a different location, such as an unrelated address or a self-storage facility.
  
  
• If you receive a request to deliver goods to a non-University address, please contact our Procurement team to check the validity of the request.
  
  
• A suspicious phone number – if you’re unsure if a phone number provided or a phone call received is genuinely from King’s College London, please do not call the number and end any call without sharing information. Instead, you can contact our general switchboard to be directed to the relevant member of our Procurement team. King’s Procurement staff will never call you via mobile or ask you to call back via a mobile number.
  
  
• Sense of urgency – fraudsters will often pressure suppliers to fulfil an order very quickly e.g. via priority/overnight shipping.

If you’re concerned about whether a quotation/purchase order is genuinely from King’s College London, do not contact the email or phone number provided in the correspondence received. Please instead contact our Procurement team to check the validity of the request.

If you suspect fraud, please provide details to us at counter-fraud@kcl.ac.uk.

If you have been scammed, defrauded or experienced cyber-crime, please also report this to Action Fraud. Action Fraud is the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud and cyber-crime.

See the Counter Fraud page for more information.