How to bank online safely How safe is it to bank online?

21 million people in the UK choose the convenience of banking online.  But is it safe and what can you do to make sure your bank account isn't emptied by fraudsters?

The good news is that in 2010 online banking fraud losses fell by 22%, thanks to a combination of consumers taking better care of their computers with up-to-date anti-virus software and banks using more sophisticated fraud detection software. The bad news is that the scammers are working hard to get at your cash - phishing attacks were up 21% in 2010.  

The risks of online banking

The two key ways thieves can access online bank accounts are phishing and password theft. 

With a phishing scam you receive a hoax email purporting to come from your bank. The scam tells you to click on a link in the email – this link takes you to a fake website that resembles your bank’s. You type in your security details, thinking they’re secure, and unwittingly pass them on to thieves.

Thieves can also steal your password by tricking you into installing a program on your computer that records what you type, so when you next log onto your online account, the program secretly records your password details. It then sends them to a thief over the internet.

Protecting your online bank account

It’s easy to protect yourself from these and other scams.  

Common sense is the best protection against phishing scams. Don’t click on any links in emails that say they’re from your bank. Instead, type your bank’s full website address into your browser. If you want to double-check if a message is genuine, ring your bank.

Good security software (see our security software reviews) will protect your computer against malicious software – as will not opening any email attachments you're not expecting and avoiding downloading files from websites you don’t trust.

For more on how to avoid being the victim of fraud see our tips.

If you're a victim of online bank fraud

You should regularly check your account online to pick up on any irregularities, and contact your bank as soon as possible if you think you've been a victim of fraud. Your bank is responsible for passing details of the fraud to the police.

Your bank must refund the amount of the transaction. and restore your account to the state it would have been in had the transaction not be made, unless it can prove that you've acted fraudulently or been grossly negligent.  Importantly you don't have to prove that you didn't authorise the transaction.  

How do the banks compare?

Banks take a lot of steps to make sure their websites are secure, but our Which? review of banking security shows that there are big variations in how good their measures are.