Online Security

Protecting yourself from fraud

Unfortunately, criminals will try to trick people into sharing personal and financial details.

Types of specific scams to look out for:

Protect Yourself Online

Install anti-virus software 

Viruses can be used to steal your personal information and your money.

Don’t share private information 

Check your privacy settings on all of your social networking profiles.

Protect your phone 

Set a PIN code and remember not to store passwords on your phone.

Don’t share your password

Never tell anyone your full password. We’ll never ask for it.

Keep your password strong

Use a mix of upper and lower case letters, including numbers and symbols

Watch out for fraudsters

Carefully check every email, text message or phone call is authentic and don’t respond to emails that don’t address you personally, or that you’re not expecting to receive.

Take caution

Be wary of emails that suggest there’s a problem with your account or security. We’d never send you an email asking for you to disclose personal information.

Hover, don’t click

If the email contains a link, hover your mouse over the link to see its true destination – never click on links you don’t trust completely.

Be sure of attachments

Don’t open any attachments unless you know the sender and are expecting to receive an attachment.

Spotting The Fakes

Fraudsters use fake emails and websites to obtain your personal information. This practice is known as phishing.

Phishing means that fraudsters may send you an email that looks as if it has come from us. It may even include a link to a website that looks like us. When you log in, they can obtain, and then use, your password. They might even ask you to call them or respond by email.

As genuine and convincing as they appear to be, there are ways to spot a phishing email.

Identifying a phishing email

They aren’t unique

Phishing emails may have a generic greeting and won’t address you by name.

Attention to detail 

They often contain poor grammar and punctuation, and are badly designed.

Time sensitive messages

They usually convey a sense of urgency, i.e. ‘Your account will be locked today unless you act now!’

Look out for links

Some will include a link that will take you to an unsafe site, or one that could compromise the security of your device by downloading software or malware onto it.

How We Keep You Safe

Our systems employ modern technologies and security which are independently and regularly tested

It goes without saying that security is a top priority here at Masthaven. We’re proactive and vigilant where cybersecurity issues are concerned. And you can be sure that protecting customer data is always at the forefront of our mind.

To keep you safe, robust security and protection systems sit at the heart of our IT infrastructure.

We’re also fully behind industry initiatives such as Take Five – the national campaign to help prevent financial fraud, run by Financial Fraud Action UK.

If You Think You Are A Victim Of Online Fraud

You should to report it to Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040. They’ll make a note of the incident and will provide you with a Crime Reference number if you need one.

Remember

We'll never phone and ask for all your personal information. If you do receive a call from someone claiming to be from Masthaven Bank and you're not sure it's us, hang up and call us back.

If you have not opted out of receiving marketing emails, we may occasionally send you offers about other Masthaven products. 

Get In The Know

To find out more about how you can keep yourself safe online, take a look at the following websites: