Fraud Awareness

Online banking is safe and convenient as long as you take a number of simple precautions. We have outlined some points to be aware of, below.

Fraudulent emails that claim to come from banks are currently in circulation - these are known as "phishing" emails and they are used by fraudsters to get personal information from consumers in order to access their online bank accounts.

To help protect yourself generally from fraudulent emails, you should:

never go to a website from a link in an email and then enter your personal details. Always access internet banking sites by typing the bank's address into your web browser
never respond to a message that appears suspicious
never provide personal details, such as your address, phone number etc. unless you're absolutely certain that the request is genuine
never provide any of your banking or credit card details unless you're absolutely certain that the request is genuine; and
never give anyone your security information, such as your internet/telephone banking password, PIN number or log on details. No genuine banking firm ever asks you to provide this information.

You should also consider:

installing anti-virus and spyware software and keeping it up-to-date
installing personal firewall software
forwarding the suspicious email to reports@banksafeonline.org.uk

Further help and advice about "phishing" and preventing online banking fraud is available here.