Fraud awareness

Fraud is when a criminal or dishonest person or organisation uses deception against another person or organisation with the intended purpose of financial or personal gain. Fraud is often commonly referred to as a scam or con.

There are many different types of fraud meaning that it is more important than ever to remain diligent in protecting yourself against fraud. Please read the ’Top tips for fraud prevention’ tab for further advice regarding fraud prevention.

Phishing
This is a method used by fraudsters to extract personal information from their victims. The aim of the communications is to convince the victim that they are from a trusted source. Often fraudsters will change minor details in an email address in order to give the appearance of legitimacy e.g. changing an ‘S’ to a ‘5’ or adding in an additional full stop or underscore.

Identity fraud
Once criminals have obtained personal information, through methods such as Phishing, they can exploit the information to obtain goods and services using the stolen identity. This could include opening bank accounts, taking over existing bank accounts, obtaining loans or credit cards and obtaining government issued documents e.g. passports.

Fake invoice scams
Fake invoice scams occur when fraudsters target an individual or company with a fake invoice requesting for the payment of goods or services. Often, the victim will be pressured to make the payment swiftly (thereby reducing the chance of the victim figuring out that it is a scam before making the payment). It is also important to watch out for changes to email addresses (often very minor changes) and changes to bank details, as these are key indicators of fake invoice scams.

Email Payment Fraud
Email Payment Fraud is often initiated by a fraudster affecting a consumer’s computer with malware which will lie dormant until keywords related to payment requests are identified. At this point, the fraudster will intercept the email communications between a consumer and a provider related to the request for payment and will amend any legitimate payment details given by the provider so that the fraudster’s own bank account details are sent through to the consumer instead. The fraudster will impersonate the provider to give the appearance of legitimacy. If the consumer makes the payment to the fraudster’s bank account, the funds often ultimately end up offshore to make them harder to trace.

Action Fraud is the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud. Please refer to their website for a full A-Z of different types of fraud actionfraud.police.uk/a-z-of-fraud.

United Trust Bank (UTB) works hard to protect you from fraudsters.

Fraudsters will often pretend to be working for a genuine company, this is called a clone firm and is typically part of a scam.

These Clone websites will appear to be genuine and look very similar to the legitimate firm.

Please find below a list of Clone firms pretending to be United Trust Bank.

•  www.utbpartners.com

•  unitedtrust-online.com

•  unitedtrustsbanks.com

•  utbksite.com

Further Information on these Clone firms can be found on the FCA Website link shown below:

United Trust Bank Limited (fca.org.uk)

Please refer to our Top Tips for fraud prevention section on our website for more useful information to help protect you from fraud.

Below is a list of top tips to help protect you from fraud:

•  Keep your bank details private;

•  Don’t assume an email or phone call is authentic; always check that the sender or caller is legitimate;

•  Always be cautious when receiving unexpected communications. Never automatically click on a link provided in an unexpected email or text, especially if the language or the format of the communications (e.g. font) appear different to your normal UTB communications. One recommendation is to always access the UTB website by typing utbank.co.uk into your browser rather than clicking on any links communicated to you. You can also roll your mouse pointer over a suspicious hyperlink to reveal it’s true destination;

•  Remain diligent if you receive communications regarding an unexpected change of bank details, do not make the payment if you suspect that something is not right;

•  Use anti-virus software to protect your devices and always keep your software up-to-date;

•  Do not be pressured or rushed into making a decision, this is a common tactic used by fraudsters;

•  Trust your instincts, if it does not feel right then it probably isn’t.

If in doubt, you can call the UTB Switchboard on 020 7190 5555 or complete the quick enquiry form on the ‘Reporting fraud to UTB’ tab below.

Take Five is a national campaign led by UK Finance and backed by Her Majesty’s Government. The campaign encourages consumers and businesses to stop and consider the legitimacy of the situation. Trust your instincts, if it feels wrong then it usually is.

Please refer to the Take Five website to learn more about the campaign and read more useful tips in fraud prevention.

UTB share information with CIFAS in order to help prevent fraud, money laundering and other financial crimes. The privacy notice below provides further details on this processing, please contact us on 0207 190 5555 or [email protected] if you require any further information.

General
1. Before we provide services, goods or financing to you, we undertake checks for the purposes of preventing fraud, money laundering and other financial crimes, and to verify your identity. These checks require us to process personal data about you.

2. The personal data you have provided, we have collected from you, or we have received from third parties will be used to prevent fraud, money laundering and other financial crimes, and to verify your identity.

3. Details of the personal information that will be processed include, for example: name, address, date of birth, contact details, financial information, employment details, device identifiers including IP address and vehicle details.

4. We and fraud prevention agencies may also enable law enforcement agencies to access and use your personal data to detect, investigate and prevent crime.

5. We process your personal data on the basis that we have a legitimate interest in preventing fraud, money laundering and other financial crimes, and to verify identity, in order to protect our business and to comply with laws that apply to us. Such processing is also a contractual requirement of the services or financing you have requested.

6. Fraud prevention agencies can hold your personal data for different periods of time, and if you are considered to pose a fraud, money laundering or other financial crime risk, your data can be held for up to six years.

Automated Decisions
7. As part of the processing of your personal data, decisions may be made by automated means. This means we may automatically decide that you pose a fraud, money laundering or other financial crime risk if our processing reveals your behaviour to be consistent with money laundering, known fraudulent conduct or any other financial crime, or is inconsistent with your previous submissions, or you appear to have deliberately hidden your true identity. You have rights in relation to automated decision making: if you want to know more please contact us using the details above.

Consequences of Processing
8. If we, or a fraud prevention agency, determine that you pose a fraud, money laundering or other financial crime risk, we may refuse to provide the services or financing you have requested, or to employ you, or we may stop providing existing services to you.

9. A record of any fraud, money laundering or other financial crime risk will be retained by the fraud prevention agencies, and may result in others refusing to provide services, financing or employment to you. If you have any questions about this, please contact us on the details above.

Data Transfers
10. Fraud prevention agencies may allow the transfer of your personal data outside of the UK. This may be to a country where the UK Government has decided that your data will be protected to UK standards, but if the transfer is to another type of country, then the fraud prevention agencies will ensure your data continues to be protected by ensuring appropriate safeguards are in place.

Your Rights
11. Your personal data is protected by legal rights, which include your rights to object to our processing of your personal data, request that your personal data is erased or corrected, and request access to your personal data.

12. For more information or to exercise your data protection rights, please contact us using the contact details above.

13. You also have a right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, which regulates the processing of personal data.

If you suspect that you have been the victim of fraud relating to your UTB account or someone claiming to be from UTB, please contact us immediately via the UTB Switchboard on 020 7190 5555 or by completing the fraud reporting form here. The Fraud Team are available between 9am-5pm Monday-Friday.

UTB takes fraud seriously and will make every effort to assist you if you think that you might be a victim of fraud.