There are many ways you can help protect yourself against fraud. Take a look at our guide to protect yourself and your money.
Protect your account
Ensure your password is strong by using a mixture of characters (both upper and lower case), numbers and symbols, avoiding anything too guessable.
Change your password after you first receive it and regularly keep this updated afterwards. Don’t share your password and if you lose your passbook or suspect your information has been shared, contact us immediately or call into one of our branches.
Protect your information
Be careful who you share your personal details with and don’t disclose too much information on social networking sites. Never respond to suspicious emails and if you’re in doubt whether or not the email is genuine contact us directly!
Generally, banks and building societies will use different methods to help confirm a request is genuine – i.e. quote account/reference numbers on written correspondence – which you can confirm by speaking to your provider directly.
Shred/destroy documents which include your personal information before throwing them away and get in touch immediately if you receive account opening documents for an account you haven’t applied for.
Protect your computer
Make sure your computer is protected with up-to-date firewall and anti-virus/anti-spy-ware programmes, be careful with links/attachments on an email and visit the webpage via a search engine, rather than the link in the email, if in doubt. Take care when downloading and installing programs, always consider what you’re downloading before you do it!
Let us know if someone:
- Knows your password
- Has used your account without your approval
- Has taken money from your account
- Has made you move their money into your account
If you think you’ve been a victim of fraud or suspect any contact from us may not be genuine, please call us on 0345 734 4345.
If you believe you have been the victim of identity theft, you should check your credit file to establish if any fraudulent credit facility has been taken out in your name. You should report anything fraudulent to the organisation(s) in question, as well as Action Fraud.
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