While you’re being careful to stop the spread of Covid-19, don’t forget to protect your finances, as there has been an increase in scams during the pandemic.
Fraudsters sometimes claim to be legitimate companies authorised by the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority). This ‘cloning’ of authorised firms can be very convincing and take advantage of your trust.
Let’s explore some of the risks to watch out for and how to remain vigilant to scams.
Risks
They might contact you by phonecall, email, text message, or social media message to trick you. Sometimes they’ll use an employee’s name from the company to appear more genuine.
Credit union members can be targeted by cloning firms who may try to convince them to deposit money with them.
What to watch out for:
- The scammers may give you their own phone number and other contact details.
- They may copy the website of an authorised firm, making subtle changes such as to the phone number.
- They may point you to the genuine firm’s website but use different details to correspond with you.
- They may claim to be from overseas firms that appear on the FS Register, as these firms don’t always have their full contact and website details listed.
How to Protect Yourself
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
To protect yourself from fraudsters, the first step is to check the details of the message with:
- Company website
- FS Register
- Directory enquiries
- Companies House
Sometimes, there’s subtle changes to the website URL like alternative spellings or added letters which mean it’s fake.
If in doubt, Google the company to get to their website and call them using the phone number there, not the number included in the sketchy email/text.
Don’t click on any links in the email/text unless you’re sure who it is from. On a desktop computer you can hover the mouse over the link and you should see a preview of the link running along the bottom of the screen. This is a good way to identify fake websites without clicking on them.
EuroTrust Credit Access
We will never ask you to:
- Share your account details like internet banking password
- Move money to a secure or holding accounts
- Transfer money to a new sort code or account number
Our website URL – https://www.etagroup-eu.com/
Our online banking URL – https://ukcreditunionbanking.com/capital/
If you have concerns regarding your online banking with us, please email our Member Services team at enquiries@etagroup-eu.com or call [phone_no].
