Exemplar Education Breach Emails

[DWakely]

Hi All,

 

We have been receiving some emails with the subject ICO Ref: IC-417138-V2K5 - Urgent Safeguarding & Data Breach Risk mentioning Exemplar Education.

 

Initially we thought SPAM/Phish however there appears to be nothing malicious in the email or attachment.

 

Has anyone else seen these? Started turning up today.

 

 

Edited September 8, 2025 by DWakely

[woodham]

we got the same email this morning    still looking into it but think ill just forward it to our dpa guy and see what he says

[DWakely]

I am wondering if they just took a export of email addresses out of the Gov.uk get information about schools and sent it to everyone

[woodham]

i think you might be right , its very generic and im pretty sure we didnt send any of those leaflets home  

[Bumhug360]

Got the same this morning, but has a different name on it along with a matching yahoo address

[Dan2025]

Also had this, our safeguarding lead called the number and apparently he'd emailed 24000 schools. 

 

I do think the guys an idiot for doing it this way though. Looks like spam, will worry the majority that see the email. All he had to do was put 'Exemplar education' in the subject title or the first line. 

Instead it comes across as fearmongering when the vast majority of schools won't have even heard of this provider.

 

Edited September 8, 2025 by Danwinchelsea

[sideone]

So no action required?

[TestingTesting123]

Thanks for raising this.  I have had similar enquiries. 

 

Hence a bit of digging around and found the following using the search term 'Exemplar Education' in Google Chrome.  The top hit - https://www.exemplar-education.com/ - appears bereft of any contact details for the company, does not have a cookie policy and if you read the blog headings (toward) the bottom of the screen (did not click any links), I am very suspicious/wary of everything. 

 

Moreover, the second hit using the search was for Companies House that showed an entry for 'Exemplar Education Ltd'.  I know that this does not mean that this is the owner of the website but it is interesting that Exemplar Education Ltd was 'Dissolved' in October 2022 and with the absence of any information at the bottom of the website, I think this should be given a wide berth. 

 

Plus the Google Review for 'Exemplar Education Ltd' gives it 1.5 stars (majority one star).   Yikes, avoid.   ;-(        

[timbo343]

5 hours ago, DWakely said:

Hi All,

 

We have been receiving some emails with the subject ICO Ref: IC-417138-V2K5 - Urgent Safeguarding & Data Breach Risk mentioning Exemplar Education.

 

Initially we thought SPAM/Phish however there appears to be nothing malicious in the email or attachment.

 

Has anyone else seen these? Started turning up today.

 

 

 

One of our schools got the same email.

 

I said there are 5 red flags to this..

- email domain is 8593897.brevosend.com
- urgency in the email instilling panic
- email contact at the bottom of the email doesn't match the sender
- unsubscribe link
- act without delay link is junk

[Roberto]

Brevosend domains are related to Brevo (Brevo | Email Marketing Software, Automation & CRM) which includes email marketing/CRM as one of its services, so the use of that domain isn't intrinsically a red flag imo. Now if you normally get emails from a vendor from SendGrid, say, and suddenly one comes from a different email provider it would be wise to ask why, so its not a reason to trust the sender here either.

 

The breathless urgency in the tone of the email certainly raises my spidey senses as to it being dodgy. It reads like a spammer... but it may just be a concerned idiot, so to speak.

Edited September 9, 2025 by Roberto

[Rob_D]

That someone's been able to contact the sender on the details provided speaks to it being legit, but it does read like someone with an axe to grind, or maybe a class action suite in the works.

Here, got caught by the spam filters. Although I thought it looked legit enough that I forwarded it on to our DPO (with a warning that it was flagged as spam/phishing).

[TronXP]

We have never been involved with exemplar, so even if well-intended this is still just spamming all schools.

[Sylv3r]

We had it in about 40+ of our generic school office emails but it was sent straight to junk by MS.

[Starbug1]

We got it 2 days ago, and it was correctly identified as spam by Google.

[icechris]

We received this in our spam filters and spoke to ICO who said we didn't need to take any action unless they contact us. I did however click his unsubscribe link so if he emails again we can report him to ICO. 

 

It appears to be linked to this story in the Times https://www.thetimes.com/uk/society/article/the-great-private-tutoring-rip-off-hbx8pgs3d

It looks like the company offered finance contracts like a phone contract which people aren't happy to still be in.