Internet banking
is safe:
The scare stories in the media concern incredibly stupid people who enter
their bank details into rogue emails (phishing emails, see below). Some
idiots even give bank details to crooks who telephone pretending they are
bank officials or the police. The most common cause of identity fraud, apart
from phishing, results from people failing to shred vital documents such as
bills and bank statements.
Interest rates: All banks offer excellent interest rates for internet accounts. Most have online current accounts which pay high interest.
Advantages of Internet banking:
You can: check your account at anytime to ensure that payments have been
made. You can check frequently to see if unauthorised payments are being
made. You can print a statement, pay bills, transfer money from one
account to another, and set up a new account such as online savings.
Warning: Nearly all internet accounts work well on dial-up, however Northern Rock's internet account is written in Java code and is hopelessly slow on dial-up. You will need a fast broadband service to use Northern Rock.
Bogus PayPal emails:
If you have a PayPal account you will occasionally receive an email from
PayPal. Genuine PayPal emails will always greet you with your name or the
name of your business. They will never ask you for bank or personal details.
Bogus PayPal emails will greet you with Dear PayPal Member or
something similar and will be phishing for personal information.
Phishing:
spam emails purporting to be from banks and building societies are scams
called phishing (fishing for bank details). Kill them (hold down
Shift
and tap the
Delete
key).
Genuine emails from your bank or building society NEVER ask you for personal
or financial details.
Warning: If you should accidentally open a phishing email the worst possible thing you can do is to click the unsubscribe link or reply to the email. If you do, you will be classified as an easy target by spammers. You will then be inundated with vastly increased quantities of spam for ever.
