Recognise a fake bank text or email

Smishing texts and phishing emails imitate your bank to harvest logins. The tells are consistent once you know them.

1. Be suspicious of any message creating urgency — ’account locked’, ’verify now’, ’suspicious login’.
2. Never tap a link in a bank text or email — open the official app or type the web address yourself.
3. Check for a sense-of-panic tone, odd sender addresses and slightly-wrong web addresses.
4. Remember your bank won’t ask you to confirm a password or one-time code via a link.
5. Forward suspicious texts to 7726 (spells SPAM) and delete them.
6. If unsure whether a message is real, call your bank on the number on your card.