Fraud warning for farmers
Farming businesses are being warned to stay alert after a spate of scams across the sector.
Farming businesses are being warned to stay alert after a spate of scams across the sector.
NatWest’s dedicated agriculture team has noticed an increase in enquiries in recent months – among both customers and non bank customers.
Ian Burrow, Head of Agriculture and Renewable Energy at NatWest, said: “We’ve been alerted to a scam that is directly targeting farmers via telephone. This is not unique to our customers but all banks and we would like everyone to be alert to this serious risk.
“The caller pretends to be from their bank or the police, advising of suspicious activity on their account. You will be encouraged to call the bank back ‘so you know the call is genuine’ – but the fraudsters don’t disconnect their call, so they remain on the line. They will then ask you to transfer money to a ‘safe account’.
“We know how distressing fraud can be for all involved and provide ongoing support to our customers to deal with the effects.
“We work closely with the police and crime agencies to try and prevent this crime, and communicate frequently with our customers about our security measures and specific threats.
“We will never ask customers for their password, pin, card details or security information either over the phone or when they log-in to the banking system online. We recommend that our customers download the Trusteer Rapport security software. Customers should remember that these rules can protect them even if a Trojan or other virus has infected a computer.”
Key security messages:
- The Bank will never ask Customers to key in their full PIN and password as part of the log-in process. Only a partial PIN and password will be required.
- The Bank will never ask Customers for their PIN, password or Challenge Response codes over the telephone or via email in any circumstances.
- The Bank will never ask Customers for Challenge Response codes from their Smartcard reader in order to log-in or to change their PIN and password.
You can find a copy of our security messages here: http://support.bankline.natwest.com/pdf/security/natwest-security-poster.pdf
