Account holders at HSBC, Lloyds Bank, Santander, TSB, Nationwide Building Society and Virgin Money have been issued a warning over the fraud protection afforded by the leading banks.
It follows an investigation by consumer group Which?, with results suggesting the firms may be leaving customers vulnerable to fraudulent spoofing attempts. Spoofing is when scammers disguise themselves as legitimate companies - such a banks - by using email addresses and numbers to appear as the genuine firm or retailer.
To make it more difficult for fraudsters to impersonal them, companies can sign up to Ofcom's Do Not Originate. The regulator uses this to compile a list then shared with telecoms providers to help them identify and block calls that are likely to be scams.
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In order to test the effectiveness of the protection given to customers by the leading banks, Which? made calls testing the prominent numbers of 14 current account holders. The numbers used were those either printed on the back of debit cards or listed as fraud helplines on bank websites.
The consumer group tested at least one number from HSBC, Lloyds Bank, Santander, TSB, Nationwide Building Society and Virgin Money, with at least one number from each firm successfully spoofed, reports The Echo.
A previous Which? survey amongst fraud victims concluded that of those who were initially approached by phone or text, 68 per cent said the incident involved number spoofing.
Recently, Ofgem has tightened rules and guidance for telephone networks involved in transmitting calls. The regulator has done so in a bid to identify and block spoofed calls where possible, making it harder for scammers.
Rocio Concha, Which? director of policy and advocacy, said: "Number spoofing is a particularly malicious form of fraud used by scammers to deceive their victims - and our research shows some banks could potentially be leaving their customers at risk."
A spokesperson for trade association UK Finance said: "Protecting customers from fraud is a top priority for the finance industry which is why we are actively working with the regulator Ofcom to help crack down on number spoofing.
"This initiative prevents criminals impersonating banks by protecting bank inbound phone numbers from being used to make outbound calls and socially engineer or scam bank customers. It is important to remember that anyone can be caught out by these criminals and that you should always stay alert.
"To help stay safe, customers should always follow the advice of our Take Five to Stop Fraud campaign and question any uninvited call requesting their personal information or money in case it's a scam." A HSBC spokesperson told Which?: "We are participants of the Do Not Originate scheme which provides additional protection, alongside numerous other measures, to help protect customers from scams and fraud.
"We regularly review the numbers we have registered with a view to additional entries where it is appropriate to do so. We are currently in the process of adding those two numbers to those already on the register."
Lloyds Bank said: "Banks can't solve the problem of number spoofing alone and telecoms firms need to speedily address the technical gaps in their systems that allow this type of fraud to happen, even with Do Not Originate lists in place."
A Nationwide spokesperson told the consumer group: "Nationwide takes the protection of its members seriously and our contact numbers are on the Do Not Originate list - and therefore cannot be spoofed. However, it appears one of our numbers was inadvertently missed, for which we would like to thank Which? for bringing to our attention. We can confirm this is now being added to our list of protected numbers for future."
A Santander spokesperson told Which?: "Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We have now requested that Ofcom adds this number to the DNO list.
"As part of the measures we take to protect customers against fraud, we aim to include all our inbound-only customer service phone numbers on the DNO list, which provides some protection against spoofing but is not 100% comprehensive."
TSB said that all relevant TSB numbers are now on Do Not Originate. A Virgin Money spokesperson said: "Virgin Money currently has over 40 numbers registered for the Do Not Originate service and we continue to add numbers to this to ensure as much coverage as possible.
"The list is not a guarantee that spoofing won't occur as not all providers use the list and technology constraints can mean that some calls get through, however, we will raise this with them and ensure that all the numbers you highlighted are registered."
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