Michele D'Douza from NatWest gave a salutary talk about scams at the Members' Open Morning Meeting on 7th October. She described how easy it is to be taken in by scans, what to look out for and how to avoid them.
NatWest's Top 10 Tips on how to protect yourself from fraud and scams:
1. Never give your personal or banking details to anyone you don't know or trust
2. The Bank will never ask you to transfer money to another bank or withdraw money and hand it to a courier
3. Never give your customer number, full PIN and password or card reader code to anyone
4. Your Bank will never ask you for your full PIN or password in a text of email or when Banking online
5. Be careful what information you share on Social Media - fraudsters can use that information to impersonate you
6. Always phone your Bank on an independently sourced number - even if you receive a message apparently from your Bank which gives a telephone number to call back on
7. Always shred documents which contain any personal information
8. Always delete suspicious texts, often they may try to trick you into giving away personal and security information
9. Scammers will always attempt to communicate with you - especially online - to get personal information from you but will rarely tell you much about themselves
10. Be cautious about online relationships - often they will target your emotions to get you to send money to them
