Nationwide has issued an urgent warning to customers who have over £1,675 in their bank account. Nationwide, the UK’s largest building society, has issued an urgent notice to bank account holders and customers, highlighting the need to protect themselves.
Nationwide warned: “It is still a major problem that criminals continue to defraud people. In 2023, more than 224,694 confirmed cases were reported and in total, £376.4 million was lost to fraudsters from personal (not business) accounts alone.
“The average loss per case is £1,675. £119.7 million was lost to identity fraud, £98.6 million to investment fraud and £77.0 million to purchase fraud.” Identity fraud involves tricking you into making a payment or giving out personal and financial details to someone claiming to be from a trusted organisation or person.
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This could be the police, your financial services provider, a delivery or utility company, or a government agency such as HMRC or DVLA. The scammer will claim a payment is outstanding, your account or money is at risk and needs to be transferred to a secure account, or they have accidentally refunded you too much.
They may pretend to be someone you know and send text messages from a different phone or messages from a different profile. These scams often start with a phone call, text message, or email that appears to be from a trusted organization or person. Scammers can make their calls, text messages, and emails look like they come from an organization or person you trust.
Spoofing involves disguising an email address, sender name, phone number, or website URL—often by changing just a letter, symbol, or number—to convince you that you are interacting with a trusted source.
Criminals hope to manipulate you into believing that these fake messages are real. This can lead you to download malware, send money, or reveal personal, financial, or other confidential information.