The Internet offers you the opportunity to bank and shop in safety at your convenience. There is no reason why it should not be used with confidence, but you should not relax your guard when online.

Things you can do NOW

There are a few simple actions which you can undertake now to make sure that you have the best possible protection:

• Treat all unsolicited emails with caution and never click on links from such emails to visit unknown web sites 
• Install anti-virus software, keep it up-to-date and run regular security scans 
• Install and learn how to use a personal firewall 
• Install the latest security updates, also known as patches

The Bank Safe Online website www.banksafeonline.org.uk contains a lot of useful information on common internet banking scams, including examples of the latest scams, how to report them and how to protect yourself from the fraudsters.

The three most common online banking scams are phishing, trojans and money mules.

What is phishing?

Phishing is the name given to the practice of sending emails at random purporting to come from a genuine company operating on the Internet, in an attempt to trick customers of that company into disclosing information at a bogus website operated by fraudsters. These emails usually claim that it is necessary to "update" or "verify" your customer account information and they urge people to click on a link from the email which takes them to the bogus website. Any information entered on the bogus website will be captured by the criminals for their own fraudulent purposes. 

What are Trojans?

Trojans take their name from the term 'Trojan Horse' and are a type of computer virus which can be installed on your computer without you realising. Trojans are sometimes capable of installing a "keystroke logger", which captures all of the keystrokes entered into a computer keyboard. Some specifically seek to capture passwords entered at certain web sites, by capturing keystrokes or taking screen shots of sites you visit. This information is then sent to the fraudsters over the Internet. 

Typically the fraudsters will send out emails at random to get people to click on a link from the email and visit a malicious web site where vulnerabilities in the web browser are exploited to install the Trojan. The emails are not normally related to Internet banking and try and dupe people into visiting clicking on the link to the malicious web site with a variety of excuses.

What is a money mule?

As most of the fraudsters behind these scams are located overseas and it is not possible to make cross-border transfers from most online bank accounts in the UK, a "money mule" or "money transfer agent" is required to launder the funds obtained as a result of phishing and Trojan scams. After being recruited by the fraudsters, money mules receive funds into their accounts and they then withdraw the money and send it overseas using a wire transfer service, minus a certain commission payment.

Money mules are recruited by a variety of methods, including spam emails, adverts on genuine recruitment web sites, approaches to people with their CVs available online, instant messaging and adverts in newspapers.

Positions on offer sometimes include "UK representative", "shipping manager", "financial manager" or "sales manager". They offer you the chance to earn some easy money for a few hours work each week, usually just requiring that you have access to the Internet.

Remember that even if you have nothing to do with the actual extraction of funds from another person's account, by allowing your account to be used to receive and transfer such funds, you will be acting illegally.

Although the prospect of making some easy money may appear attractive, any "commission" payments will be recovered as they are the proceeds of fraud and you may become embroiled in a police investigation. Remember that you will be the easiest part of the chain to track down and supplying any information to the fraudsters may also put you at risk from identity fraud.

Key points to remember:

• Banks will never email you to request that you "confirm" or "update" your password or any personal information by clicking on a link and visiting a web site 
• Treat all unsolicited emails with caution and never click on links from such emails and enter any personal information 
• To log-on to Internet banking, open your web browser and type the address in yourself 
• If in doubt about the validity of an email, or if you think that you may have disclosed information to a fraudulent site, contact your bank immediately on an advertised number. 
• Install anti-virus software, keep it up-to-date and run regular security scans 
• Install and learn how to use a personal firewall 
• Install the latest security updates, also known as patches 
• Be wary of any unsolicited offers or opportunities for work, especially if the company is based overseas 
• Verify the details of any company that you are consider dealing with and never give your bank account details to someone you don't know or trust 
• Contact your bank immediately if you think that you may have become involved in a money mule scam 
• If you see an opportunity to make some easy money and the offer seems too good to be true, then it probably is!