Email scams

Check the message is personalised with information like your name, your postcode or part of your account number. If it isn’t personalised at all then you should be suspicious.

Our emails will always contain one piece of personally identifiable information, like a partial postcode or name so that you can identify it's genuine.

Are there careless spelling mistakes or poor grammar? This can be a big giveaway of a scam email. A real bank or company would not make mistakes like this:

‘Their seems to be a money taken out of your account. Please transfer to safe account asap.

Is it the same as the email address you usually receive emails from or just similar?

Be wary of prompts in emails to:

• download antivirus software
• open email attachments
• visit a website requesting personal details

Our emails will always contain one piece of personally identifiable information, like a partial postcode or name so that you can identify it's genuine. They may contain links to our websites however they’ll never contain links that take you to a page asking for any online banking details like your customer number, password or card reader codes.

Scare tactics are often used by scammers to make you worry so you’ll act without thinking it through:

• ‘You are under attack! Someone is making fraudulent payments off your account! Act fast by transferring your money into this safe account.’
• ‘We’ve detected some suspicious activity on your account. Act fast or risk your money being taken.’

By taking a moment to think whether the email is genuine, you can stop yourself from playing into the fraudsters hands. 

Is your bank account being threatened? No bank will close your account if you don’t do what they say in an email:

• ‘Someone has attempted to access your account. Please click this link and login to your account. Failure to do so within 24 hours will result in restricted access to your account.’

Clicking on the link will likely take you to a copycat website where you will be prompted to enter your full details.

Unfortunately, being the winner of a competition you never entered doesn’t happen. So don’t fall for it.