With the rise in popularity of social networking sites such as Facebook, You Tube and My Space there are increased avenues for fraudsters to operate.
These sites work by building networks and communications between individuals; they encourage us to divulge greater amounts of personal information about ourselves than ever before.
This information we post is increasingly being used to illegally obtain products and services without our knowledge. The more information you give about yourself, the more vulnerable you become to fraud.
To help protect yourself from internet fraudsters, you should:
- Limit the amount of information you give about yourself, the less information you give the safer you are. Often people give their full names, e-mail address, contact numbers, and date of birth, plus intimate details such as pet names and mother’s – everything a fraudster would need to guess the passwords for your bank and credit card accounts.
- Use a different e-mail address when social networking. If you join any networks or groups, all members will usually have access to your profile so it’s important to limit the information that others can see about you.
- Be careful who you accept as a friend. The more people you accept on blind trust, the higher the chance that someone will take advantage of the information you post. If in doubt, don’t accept invitations from strangers.
- Don’t be tempted to give out your password to anyone, even to enable a friend to look at your photos or check your messages for you while you are offline. You should always keep your passwords to yourself.
If you think that a fraudster already has your Internet banking details, or that someone other than you has accessed your account online, call us immediately on 0845 3000 116 (+44 20 7649 9437 from overseas)*.
