Banks have been in the headlines this week as HSBC announced it was to close 114 banks across the country, including one in Nottinghamshire. Now, an investigation has suggested HSBC, Lloyds Bank, Santander, TSB, Nationwide Building Society and Virgin Money may be leaving customers vulnerable to fraudulent spoofing attempts.
Spoofing, where scammers impersonate legitimate companies, is a common tactic used to deceive victims. Fraudsters forge the name or number that comes up on an email, phone call or text so it appears to match that of a genuine firm. To make it harder for fraudsters to impersonate them, companies can sign up to regulator Ofcom's Do Not Originate (DNO) list - a shared resource with telecoms providers to help them identify and block calls likely to be spoofed.
To test how effective banks were at protecting their customers, consumer champion Which? made calls to a test phone, spoofing the prominent numbers of 14 current account providers. Firms' numbers were chosen if they were the ones printed on the back of debit cards or listed as fraud helplines on their websites.
