Security Centre | Royal Bank of Scotland

Fraudsters often contact you pretending to be from the Bank, the Police or companies you trust to convince you to pay money outside your account.

A common strategy fraudsters may use is to pose to be a known company that you may use and advise that you have overpaid a payment in the past and that you are owed a refund. The fraudsters would then try to get you to use your card reader to be able to process the refund.

Follow these simple tips to help protect yourself from scams.

• Never give out your Mobile banking App Activation codes and Passcode
• Never give your full Online Banking PIN or full Online Banking password to anyone, even a caller claiming to be from your bank, the police or another company you trust
• Only ever pay money to people and companies you know & trust 
• Never give out your card reader codes to anyone
• If you get a call asking you for this information, end the call immediately
• If you receive a suspicious or unexpected call, always verify the caller using an independently checked phone number such as a contact number from our website
• If you receive a request to download software to connect to your computer, and you have not initiated the conversation with the company, decline to do so

More about vishing 

Stay safe while you shop online by following these simple steps

• Only shop on secure and trusted websites

• Keep your contact details including your mobile number updated with the bank

• Download our free security software IBM Rapport that protects your card details online

For more information please visit our card security page

Take Five is a national campaign that offers straight-forward and impartial advice to help everyone protect themselves from preventable financial fraud. This includes email deception and phone-based scams as well as online fraud – particularly where criminals impersonate trusted organisations. 

Remember to stop and think

1. Never disclose security details, such as your full PIN or full banking password
2. Don't assume an email, text or phone call is authentic
3. Don't be rushed - a genuine organisation won't mind waiting
4. Listen to your instincts - you know if something doesn't feel right
5. Stay in control - don't panic and make a decision you'll regret

For more information please visit the Take Five website (opens in a new window)

Royal Bank of Scotland are proactive in providing you with the knowledge and skills to protect yourself from fraud and scams, and that is why we are proud to be the first and only bank to support Friends Against Scams, a new partnership initiative with the National Trading Standards Scams Team.

Friends Against Scams aims to raise awareness of fraud and scams, encourage people to take part in short online training session's and make a commitment to spread the fraud protection message to family and friends.Anybody can join Friends Against Scams by helping to spread the scams awareness message and make a difference in their own way

For more information and to take the online training, visit the Friends Against Scams website www.friendsagainstscams.org.uk/ (opens in new window)

Fraudsters create fake social media accounts ‘offering’ to help by asking for your account information or directing you to fake websites. These fake social media accounts often have similar imaging, blurbs or tweets as our real accounts.

Follow these simple steps to help stay safe on social media

What you need to do:

1. On Twitter, look for a blue tick next to @RBS_Help.
2. Never click on links or attachments in suspicious messages
3. Never give your full PIN or full password to anyone
4. Report any suspicious activity to phishing@natwest.com

More about social media safety

Fraudsters send spoof text messages and emails to try and get your personal information. These messages may well have been doctored so that they appear to come from a genuine Bank number or email ID. They usually contain links which lead to websites asking you to enter your Online Banking login information or other personal information.

We recommend you follow these simple steps to help stay secure:

• Never give your full PIN or full password to anyone
• Never respond to suspicious emails or text messages
• Never click on links or attachments in suspicious emails or text messages
• If you’re in doubt about the authenticity of a message from us, please contact us immediately

Sometimes you get emails pretending to be from legitimate sources…but they’re asking you to give away personal or private information…

This is called phishing.

If you do receive a suspicous email you can report it to us by forwarding it to phishing@rbs.co.uk

More about Phishing