Barclays: Beware the credit card e-scam

October 27, 2006

A new craze is sweeping the nation whereby fraudsters are targeting customers who like to use e-banking facilities.
 
A very common example is that they will e-mail you claiming there is some type of lottery win held in your name and requesting you to confirm bank and security details, thus enabling them to withdraw money from your account. Alternatively they ask you to send sums of money to “release” your “winnings”. Again there are no “winnings” and you could be out of pocket for rather large sums of money.
 
The e-mails are very professional in appearance and you could be forgiven for thinking they are legitimate. One bank often mentioned and targeted by these fraudsters is Barclays. Their Electronic Banking Director assures customers they would never ask for their security details in that way and urges anyone with even the slightest doubt about the e-mail to ignore and/or delete it.
 
Tips to check for possible fraudulent e-mails:

• Make sure a browser web address starts with “https://”
  

• Refrain from ever giving out ALL your security details. Legitimate banks will only ever select a few for verification.

• Be wary if an e-mail requests amounts of money from you in addition to confirming your details.
  

• NEVER follow a link within a suspicious e-mail. You could allow access to a virus or even allow the fraudster enough access to corrupt and copy your personal details for their own means.
   
  

Barclays offers free F-Secure anti virus software and a SMS text confirmation service to its on-line customers. For more information contact www.barclays.co.uk/security