7 things your bank will never ask you
Nowadays, there’s so many options when it comes to how you do your banking – telephone, internet and mobile banking – all of which save a lot of time. But these new methods also open up more opportunities for fraud.
Some criminals use tricks to steal your banking information. These tricks normally involve calling or emailing you and pretending to be your bank to secure information they need to access your accounts. Information might include your full PIN number, account or card number.
Sometimes these phone calls and emails seem legitimate and persuasive. How do you avoid them and keep your accounts secure? Here are seven things your bank will never ask, but a fraudster might:
1. Call or email to ask for your full PIN or online banking passwords
If your bank does contact you, maybe to check a transaction was really made by you, they wouldn’t ask for more than three digits from your PIN to confirm your identity, and would never ask for your online banking password.
2. Ask you to authorise the transfer of funds to a new account
Often criminals posing as a bank will tell you that your account is under threat. These threats may be from “a corrupt employee” or “cyber criminals.” You may be asked to transfer your money online into a new “safe account” – which is actually the fraudster’s account.
3. Ask you to perform a “test” transaction online
Sometimes, fraudsters pretending to be from a bank will email customers and ask them to perform a “test” transaction online, maybe because of a “technical problem” on their account.
4. Email you a link to a website that asks you to enter your online banking details
This is known as the phishing scam. The websites may also be infected with malware. These websites usually look and feel the same as legitimate websites, so always double check the URL!
5. Ask you to email or text personal or banking information
Even if the email address appears to belong to the bank, real banks never do this.
6. Provide banking services through unofficial mobile
Mobile banking is an excellent time-saver, but you should always ensure you use banking apps linked from your bank’s official website.
7. Call to advise you to buy diamonds, land or other commodities
Reputable banks do not cold-call. These callers can be very persistent and persuasive, so just put the phone down.
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