Our approach to fraud prevention

Our fundamental purpose is to keep our customers’ money safe and secure.

Advancing technology brings many benefits. This same technology also allows fraudsters to create sophisticated scams. We’re working harder than ever to keep your money safe and secure.

If the worst happens, and you fall victim to fraud & scams, we often spot it and get in touch with you.

If you spot something or are worried about a possible scam, we’re available 24/7 to report a scam. 

We take action against accounts where needed and report our findings to other banks and the police for further action.  

In 2020 we committed to investing £100 million over 3 years to combat fraud to ensure we remain up to date with the latest fraud trends.

We use sophisticated technical profiling systems that measure things like: device, payment amount, biometric behaviours, location, and payment risk. All of this helps us to identify where there may be suspicious activity on your account.

Where our systems flag a suspicious payment, we will contact you to check if the payment is genuine. Most concerns can be resolved by phone, but we may also ensure you get the help you need by referring to one of our branches to speak to someone in person.

Our front-line staff are specially trained to question suspicious transactions that may be a scam. They are also trained in aftercare for those who have fallen victim to scams. 

When you pay a new contact via Online or mobile banking, you will be given scam advice and asked to acknowledge this before you make the payment. We also offer a sort code checker so that you can be sure your payment is going to the bank you expect.

We use biometrics, like fingerprint and facial recognition, to log into our mobile banking app as a secure method of authentication to check it’s really you logging in.

Sometimes we’ll ask you to provide a One Time Passcode (OTP) or to authorise a payment in the mobile banking app, when you’re paying for something online. This gives us a second layer of security to ensure it’s really you making a payment.

We’ll ask you to input your PIN more often when you pay with contactless. It’s another way for us to keep money safer.

As we continue to do all we can behind the scenes to tackle fraud, it is most powerful when we work together with our customers.

We provide scam alerts when you pay someone new through online banking and our app, to help you stop & consider if the payment you are about to make could be to a scammer.

Fraud, scams and security advice is shared on our Security Centre and is regularly updated to reflect current trends

We provide on-going support for ‘Take Five – to stop fraud’, the Finance education and awareness initiative, and share their messaging across our communications channels

We lead the MoneySense schools education programme, which includes sessions on Fraud and Money Mules to help young people understand fraud and how to avoid it.

We created the ‘Friends Against Scams’ colleague education programme in collaboration with National Trading Standards. Our customer facing staff are trained in Friends Against Scams and we also convey this training to customers

We have a team of over 100 Customer Support Specialists working to provide education advice and support often in conjunction with organisations like Age to deliver ‘Friends Against Scams’ education to businesses and local community groups

We're the only bank with a team of dedicated Customer Protection Managers, supporting and educating you to keep you safe and secure

Our colleague support guides are continually refreshed to ensure our staff are asking you the right questions at the point of processing a payment to help detect scams

We actively communicate with you on our various social media platforms, educating you about common fraud types and scams tactics- including responding to the latest scam trends- with advice about how to spot and avoid these.

Educational materials, including posters and leaflets, are available to customers in branches 

We will send you a text or a push notification when you create or update a payee using Online or mobile banking, with some details of the update

We send you either a text, push notification or email you when you have updated your personal information, like your address, and advise us how to contact us if this isn’t right.

Sometimes we will send you updates via email, which might be about your account or about new products that might interest you. We will never send you a link to a login page for your Online banking

If we send you a text message or push notification, we will never include a link to login pages

Where we are concerned about a payment being made on your account, we may contact you either by text message, push notification or a phone call (using your most up to date mobile number) to alert you to any suspicions we have. This may require you to respond and confirm whether the transaction was genuine or not.

We advise customers if they have any suspicions, or if the call doesn’t feel right, to call us back from an independently verified phone number (such as the number on the back of your bank card)

We will never contact you and ask you to disclose your Online banking PIN or password.

We will never ask you to disclose card reader codes, app passcodes or activation codes.

Never transfer money from your account, either online or in branch, after being instructed to do so, even if that person claims to work for the bank

You can access a full list of contact numbers- including international numbers- for our dedicated fraud and scams teams on our website here.

We are one of 7 funding founders and signatories of the industry initiative, the Voluntary APP Scam Code. The Code aims to provide greater protection to customers from scams through customer education, doing more to prevent these scams and by committing to reimburse customers in certain circumstances.

We actively work with other payment service providers, industry bodies, law enforcement, payment schemes, and regulators to tackle fraud and scams. We also work with these organisations to share intelligence in criminal investigations.

We cooperate with national police forces using the Banking Protocol to protect customers. It provides support from police forces to those who have been targeted by fraudsters. It is currently used in branch and we are looking to extend to our telephony and online payments.

We adhere to industry Best Practice Standards which were introduced in January 2017 and provided a framework for banks to manage APP scams, and rapidly share intelligence regarding beneficiary mule accounts.

We contribute funding and support to the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit– a unique law enforcement unit which disrupts organised financial fraud.

We introduced Confirmation of Payee in 2020 to help clarify who is receiving the money from payments you make