A Suffolk council is reassuring residents that they do not believe they have been hacked, as precautionary advice has been issued on a phishing scam.

West Suffolk Council said it has no reason to believe the council or the HomeLink housing register has been compromised.

This comes after residents using these services in other parts of the country have reportedly been hit with phishing scams. 

Cllr Diane Hind, cabinet member for resources at West Suffolk Council, said the council sent out guidance to HomeLink customers on Friday to warn them of the new scam, and that resident fears following this appear to be a misunderstanding.

"West Suffolk Council has robust systems in place to detect and respond to security events and there is currently no evidence of any breach on our core systems," she said. 

"Additionally, we implement all government best practice to protect our domain names from being spoofed.

"Home-Link made all applicants aware of a phishing scam that has taken place in other parts of the country. They have been provided assurance that they have no reason to believe that the HomeLink housing register has been hacked or targeted by the current phishing campaign.

"They did however, issue precautionary advice to all HomeLink applicants on Friday, and are taking steps to introduce additional security features as a priority."

HomeLink is the lettings scheme for council and housing association homes in Cambridgeshire and West Suffolk.

On Friday, the email to residents said: "We are aware that some Housing Register schemes have recently been targeted by a phishing attempt.

"We do not believe that Home-Link is affected, but please be cautious if you receive an email purporting to be from Locata Housing Services from a ‘donotreply’ address, asking you to click a link to confirm your interest in a property.

"If you do receive such an email please ensure you do not click the link."

Residents are asked to follow the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre guidance should they click on a link and share personal information. 

They said Locata Housing services will never request information with a link.