How do I stay stay safe online?

While email is useful, it can also have risks. Phishing is a fraudulent practice of sending emails pretending to be from organisations you already know such as your bank or payment card company, insurance company, a government department or a business.

These emails will look ‘real’. But they are designed to obtain your personal information or to infect your device with a virus.

If something's too good to be true, it probably is. Not everything you read in an email is true or trustworthy.

You can learn to spot common things that give scam emails away, such as:

• The use of 'Dear Customer' or 'Dear Friend' instead of using your actual name
• Spelling mistakes
• Poor word spacing
• Use of symbols like apostrophes and semicolons that look out of place
• Using HTML (web page code) to insert remarks that break up key words
• Using an image of text rather than text itself. You can tell by trying to highlight the words
• Containing very little text at all in the actual email, just a hyperlink to a website

Genuine companies, financial services providers and government bodies make a big effort to keep their emails accurate and professional looking. Any of the mistakes above are clues that the email is from a nuisance or fraudulent source.

• Never reply to emails asking you for personal or financial information about yourself. Genuine banks and financial companies will not ask you for personal or financial information this way
• Never reply to emails that you weren't expecting, or if you don't know the sender
• Never open attachments you weren't expecting
• Don't click on links within emails – they could take you to fraudulent websites. Type the address into your browser instead
• Even emails that appear to be from friends, family and colleagues may, in reality, be fraudulent, sent by a virus on their device
• If you are sending an email to several people, type their names in the 'BCC' field instead of the 'CC' field (in case it gets intercepted and reveals everyone's names and email addresses)

Before forwarding an email, remember to delete all details – like the original sender or the previous email trail – if you don't want them to be seen.

We’ve recently become aware of several websites for fake companies imitating our brand, offering investments with attractive high rates of return. Investing in any fake products will mean that you will not have any protection and will most likely lose your investment. Our businesses work with law enforcement and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to remove sites and close down criminal operations – but it’s worth being aware and thinking carefully before you make any investment. Read our tips below for how to spot a scam and remember: if it looks to good to be true, it probably is.

How to spot a fake website

Some common things to look out for are:

• Limited information on a website beyond the homepage
• Broken links to other parts of the site
• Poor spelling and grammar
• Promises of rates of return that are beyond the market average

These sites can be reached through searching online, as well as directly. The criminals behind the fake websites pay for adverts on Google and other search engines, and we’ve also had reports of fake comparison websites being set up to hook people in.

You can find more information about this on our protecting yourself page.

If you think you have been the victim of a scam you can find information on our protecting yourself page.

Scammers will often ‘phish’ for your information or ask you to re-invest your money elsewhere, and many scams look convincing. To help protect your life savings from scams, many of our customers find it helpful to follow these 2 steps:

1. Stop. Take a moment to think before giving anyone your personal information or money.
2. Challenge. Could it be fake? 

• Anyone offering to free up your pension pot before you’re 55 is likely to be fraudulent
• Any company offering you a free pension review is unlikely to be authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), although they may falsely claim to be
• If you've felt pressure to make a quick decision or have been told this is a limited offer then it may not be genuine - for example, scammers have been known to send documents by courier, who will wait while you sign them
• If you’ve been offered high returns with minimal risk or been charged upfront fees, this may be fraudulent and it’s okay to reject, refuse or ignore these requests

As you may know, many fraudsters are convincing and look legitimate. If you have any concerns, you can check whether the company is genuine at fca.org.uk/scamsmart.

Your help in policing these issues will be invaluable in preventing other people, including the elderly and those who are more vulnerable, from falling prey to these fraudulent and criminal activities.

Remember, we'll never call you and ask you to login to your account, or send you an email asking for security details or other confidential information.