Banking online is perfectly safe as long as you know the tricks and traps fraudsters use, and how to avoid them. We give you the lowdown so you can be sure your online bank account is secure.
Online banking is now more popular than ever, with around 1 in 4 people going online to manage their money every day according to Bank Safe Online. Unfortunately along with this rise in online banking the level of online fraud has also increased, with scammers using ‘phishing’ and spyware to get hold of our personal details and use them to hack into accounts and siphon off money.
However there are some common-sense precautions you can take to protect your details and make sure you aren’t the next victim of online banking fraud– we show you how.
Don’t fall foul of phishing scams
Phishing is the latest means in which fraudsters attempt to capture your bank details. As online banks themselves are quite difficult to hack into, phishing works by targeting the ‘weak link’ and emailing banking customers direct.
Phishing emails will typically appear in your inbox in the form of an urgent message from your bank, requesting you to enter your personal details by clicking on a link or replying to the message. However, if you click on a link within the email you will instead be taken to a fake banking site that looks like the real thing, and any details you enter will go straight to the fraudsters.
The important thing to remember in order to avoid this kind of scam is that your bank will never, ever ask you for any personal details over email or by phone – so never respond to these emails or click on links within them.
Many of these phishing emails will seem to come from financial companies that you don’t bank with, which makes them easy to spot as fraudulent. Even if you receive an unsolicited email from your own bank you should always treat it with suspicion, especially if it requests any details. If you aren’t sure whether an email is authentic or not, it’s always worth phoning your bank to check – better to be safe than sorry.
If you do receive a phishing email you can forward it on to Bank Safe Online at reports@banksafeonline.org.uk, who can investigate the sender and work towards stopping emails like this from being sent to you in the future.
Stay alert online
When visiting your bank and accessing your accounts online, there are things you can do to make yourself better defended against scammers.
- Always type the address into your browser rather than following a link from an email when visiting your bank online.
- When you arrive at your banking site and log into the members’ area, look for ‘https’ at the beginning of the address and a small padlock icon in the bottom right corner – this signals that the site is secure.
- If you have several different accounts that require different passwords, try to be creative instead of using a variation on the same password. It’s worth using a mixture of lower case, upper case, and numbers to make your passwords harder to crack.
- What’s more, to keep your passwords secure you should never write them down. If you must write them down, make sure you choose somewhere that isn’t as obvious as your diary, your mobile phone or on a piece of paper next to your computer.
- Always log out before leaving the computer when you’ve been checking your bank account online – this applies even if you’re using own personal computer. If you’re using a shared computer, it’s important also to make sure the computer doesn’t ‘remember’ your username or password, so make sure to un-tick or de-select this option before you sign in.
Install the latest software
Another crucial thing you must do to avoid being targeted by fraudsters is to make sure your computer is equipped with the latest anti-virus software, has a firewall installed, and has all the latest security updates such as patches installed to your browser.
It may also be worth getting anti-spyware installed on your computer. Spyware works by infecting your computer with a virus which can log your keystrokes and send them back to the fraudster, who can effectively then tap into all your personal details and passwords. Anti-spyware will help prevent scammers from installing this - however you can also protect yourself by never clicking on links within emails that seem to be suspicious.
