Protect yourself against fraud and scams

What is an Authorised Push Payment (APP) Fraud?

An APP fraud is when you are tricked into sending money to a fraudster, either through being deceived about who you are paying, or about the purpose of the payment.

In May 2022, the government announced that they would make new laws to allow a regulatory body, called the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), to require banks and payment services providers to reimburse people who have been tricked into sending money to scammers, and this came into effect in June 2023.

From 7 October 2024, this regulation will offer greater protection to most victims of this type of fraud. 

Am I eligible for reimbursement?

If you are the victim of an APP fraud, you may be eligible to claim reimbursement if:

• You’re an individual, a micro-enterprise (with under 10 employees) or a small charity
• your payment was made by faster payments or CHAPS on or after 7 October 2024
• your payment was made to a UK account that can send or receive faster payments
• you have made your claim within 13 months of the last payment made to the fraudster.

Note: There is no minimum amount you can claim. The maximum amount that can be claimed for an APP fraud from 7 October is £85,000. An excess of up to £100 may apply. If eligible, you could receive a refund within five business days, unless more time is needed to investigate your claim.

When might I not be eligible for reimbursement?

You may not be able to claim reimbursement if:

• the payment was made to another account that you control, such as your nominated account
• you have acted fraudulently
• you have been significantly careless, for example, by ignoring advice from your bank not to proceed with a payment
• the payment is part of a civil dispute, for example, where you were not satisfied with the goods you paid for
• the payment was sent or received by a credit union, municipal bank or national savings bank.

What should I do if I’m a victim?

If you suspect one of the following:

• One of your accounts with us has been affected by fraud, please contact us immediately. Our contact details can be found here
• The fraud originated from your retail bank please contact them directly.

In addition please note the following:

• You must report the scam as soon as you can, and no more than 13 months after the last fraudulent payment was made
• We may ask you for additional information about your claim, please make sure you respond to these requests
• Once you have made the claim, we may ask you to report the details of the fraud to the police or offer to do this for you, and would request your consent to do this.

Phishing refers to emails that attempt to fraudulently obtain your sensitive information. These emails will often direct you to a website requesting you to enter your personal information such as bank log in details and passwords. The information is then used to access important accounts and can result in identity theft and financial loss.

Common features of phishing emails are:

• Appear to be too good to be true (they often are)
• Have a sense of urgency
• Address you in an unusual way
• Contain multiple grammatical errors
• Contain hyperlinks or attachments which may be from an unusual sender

If you receive an email from us that you are suspicious about, simply forward the email to besecure@familybsoc.co.uk and we will investigate it.

Fraudsters can also make unsolicited telephone calls encouraging individuals to provide sensitive data such as personally identifiable information. This is known as Vishing. 

If you’re unsure about a call you receive from any financial organisation, call them back but from another phone line such as a mobile or landline. We would recommend waiting about five minutes before doing so as sometimes the fraudster on the other end doesn’t hang up so when you make another call, they’re still on the line.

When we make an outgoing call e.g. to check something on an application or letter, please be aware that we will ask for personal data to identify you. We encourage you to follow the steps above if you are at all suspicious about any aspect of the call.

Furthermore, with online accounts, sometimes scammers will try to get access to your account by using a one time code or one time password. They will fill in the website with all the information they have for you like name, email etc. They will then call you pretending that they work for the company that you have your account with. Usually, the scammer will explain that they are calling to offer you an incentive such as a bonus or an extra for free in your account.

They will sound believable and they will explain to you that you will now receive a one time code so that they can ‘proceed’ to verify your account. At that moment the scammers will still be on the website and the website will send you a 1 time password (OTP) which they will ask you to read out to them. They will then enter the one time password and gain access to your account.