Don't Be Fooled - How to Spot Genuine Emails from Us

They say that imitation is the greatest form of flattery, but when the outcome of imitation isn't positive, it's not ideal. We've been made aware that companies have been using the BusinessComparison name to send multiple emails offering some of the same services we offer.

While we're resolving this issue, we want to set the record straight and ensure you know how to spot an authentic BusinessComparison email so you know you're only accessing approved deals from our roster of carefully selected partners.

From Address

A quick way to spot a genuine BusinessComparison email is to check the sender's address. We only send marketing and transactional emails from the email.businesscomparison.com email domain.

For example, we send our newsletter from the following email address:

newsletter@email.businesscomparison.com

While the name before the @ can change, everything after the @ should always be 'email.businesscomparison.com'. There shouldn't be any changes to this part of the address, including any numbers, additional characters or a different Top Level Domain (TLD), such as '.co.uk', '.org' or '.net'.

For example, emails from the following addresses aren't from us:

• deals@email.businesscomparison.net - email address ends in '.net'

• updates@businesscomparison5.co.uk - number 5 in email address and address ends in '.co.uk'

• newsletter@email.businesscomparison1.com - number 1 in email address

• email@email.business-comparison.com - hyphen between 'business' and 'comparison'

Our Logo

Although others might use our logo without our permission, providing you allow incoming emails to display images, our logo will always appear at the top of the email, as shown below.

Legal Information in Footer

Every newsletter email we send out should include the following text in the footer:

BusinessComparison is a trading name of Business Comparison Limited who are an insurance intermediary, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (Firm Reference Number (923755), and licenced by the Information Commissioners Office (Registration Number ZA213954 ). Business Comparison Limited is registered in England and Wales (company number 10257077), registered office: Steam Mill Business Centre, 1st Floor, Suites A, F and G, Steam Mill Street, Chester, Cheshire, CH3 5AN.

BusinessComparison is a credit broker not a lender and introduces borrowers and lenders for the purposes of entering into different types of loan agreements, including short-term unsecured & secured loan agreements. BusinessComparison does not charge customers a fee for using its broker services, but we do receive commission from our Partner following an introduction through this website.

Unsubscribe Option

Because the emails we send must comply with UK GDPR regulations, every email we send out includes an unsubscribe link at the bottom. You can find this under the legal information footer we've detailed above.

What to do if You Receive a Fake BusinessComparison Email

If you receive an email from someone you believe is pretending to be us, and you're certain they don't meet the criteria we've covered in this guide, here's what you need to do.

1. Don't Click any Links or Images

If you suspect you've received a fraudulent email or an email you don't recall subscribing to, it's important not to click links or images. It's also worth avoiding loading images from emails you don't recognise because the sender can use these images and links to verify the validity of your email address and gather more information about you.

If you believe an email is fraudulent, skip ahead to step 3.

2. Unsubscribe

If an unsubscribe option (typically a text link at the bottom of the email) isn't available, try unsubscribing. If the sender is genuine, they should provide an option to unsubscribe from their emails. Unfortunately, this option might not be available if the email is spam, or the unsubscribe link may not work.

3. Report suspicious emails as spam

Most email providers include the option to report emails as spam, which is notably effective as doing so should add that email address to your email provider's spam list. For some providers, this can lower the trust level of that email address, increasing the chances of marking future emails as spam for your account and others, too.

4. Block the sender's address

While most email providers will block an email address once you report it as spam, if your provider doesn't offer this, you should be able to block it, preventing them from emailing you again.

It's important to note that this is only effective at stopping this email address from contacting you. The sender could still have your email address; if they chose to do so, they could use a different email address to contact you again.

For example, if someone emails you from updates@businesscomparison1.co.uk, they could keep sending you emails from updates@businesscomparison2.co.uk, as although this is similar, it's technically a different email address.

5. Report the sender to the ICO

If you're 100% sure someone obtained your information fraudulently, consider reporting the email to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). The ICO regulates how businesses handle and use data within the UK. If they can prove misuse of your data or that the sender obtained it fraudulently, they can take legal action against the individual or business breaking the law.

You can read more about spam emails and how to report those abusing data at the ICO website.

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