Fraud prevention and protection

Our approach to reimbursing Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud
APP fraud happens when someone’s tricked by a criminal into sending money. The money is sent to an account the criminal controls, as opposed to the customer.
How we reimburse customers who make APP fraud claims depends on the date of the transaction. 
 
Transactions from 7 October 2024 onwards
These transactions are assessed under mandatory reimbursement regulations. These rules are set by the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR). 
We’ll refund eligible claims up to a maximum of £85,000 if the transactions are:

• Faster Payments or CHAPS made in the UK
• from a personal bank account, micro-enterprise or some charities.

A claim must be raised within 13 months of the final payment made to a fraudster, as part of the same scam.

We won’t assess your claim under these rules if the payments: 

• are made by cheque, cash, card or outside the UK
• are to your own account held at another bank
• were for unlawful purposes, for example, if you were buying something illegal
• are part of a civil dispute. 

If your claim is successful, we’ll put your money back into your account within 5 working days. In some cases, it may take up to 35 working days to receive a decision. This may happen if we need to ask you for more information.
 
Claim excess
If we reimburse you, we may not pay the first £100 per claim. For example, if you raise a claim for £1,000 then we may reimburse £900. We’ll assess this on a case-by-case basis.
 
The Consumer Standard of Caution
Under these rules, customers must take steps to protect themselves when they make payments. 
 
You should: 

• pay attention to warnings provided when you make a payment
• report a scam to us as soon as possible
• provide information to help with your claim if we ask for it
• report the scam to the police or allow us to report on your behalf.
   

There’s more information available about these rules on the PSR website. 
 
Transactions from 28 May 2019 to 6 October 2024
These transactions are assessed under a voluntary code we signed up to. This is called the Contingent Reimbursement Model Code (CRM Code). 
Under the CRM Code, we’ll reimburse customers in certain circumstances. 
The CRM Code applies to:

• individuals’ personal accounts
• micro-enterprises 
• charities with an annual income of less than £1million
• payments made within the UK. It won’t cover you if you send payments overseas.
   

There’s more information available in this Lending Standards Board guide. 
 
Payments outside of the CRM Code and PSR rules
All APP fraud claims will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Even if they aren’t covered by the CRM Code or the PSR rules.

Santander terms and conditions 
We'll change your account terms and conditions soon to reflect the changes.
 

Our Mobile and Online Banking Commitment gives you a peace of mind guarantee that we'll refund money taken from your account as a result of fraud. The guarantee doesn't cover instances where you have acted fraudulently or haven’t taken reasonable steps to keep your security information safe.

To protect you, we use:

Fraud detection systems 

Our fraud detection systems highlight unusual activity in your accounts, and we may use an automated service to contact you. Learn more about that in the ‘Contact’ section.

Additional online security

We may send you a One Time Passcode (OTP) or ask you to use your mobile app to authorise certain activity.

Your OTP and our app act as secure keys to your account. They help to stop anyone but you authorising transactions or making changes to your account.

Learn more about OTPs 

Online Banking security software

We recommend you download the free Rapport security software. It helps protect you against internet banking identity theft and fraud. It protects the connection between your computer and Online Banking.

Learn more about Rapport 

If you think you might have been a victim of a fraud or scam you can contact our fraud team any time on 0330 9 123 123 or 0800 313 4321 (freephone) or if you're calling from outside the UK +44 1512 648 725.

To protect you from fraud:

• Our latest fraud updates page has information about the latest scams we’re seeing.
• We’re part of the government-backed Take Five which encourages you to stop and think when you make a bank transaction.
• Our fraud and security support section has articles to help you, including ‘spotting fraud and scams’ and ‘our top security tips’.

Making payments in Online and Mobile Banking

Online and Mobile Banking is designed to help make sure that you pay the right person and not a criminal.

Bank name and Confirmation of payee

When you enter the sort code for the account you’re paying, we’ll show you the name of the bank it’s going to so that you can check it’s the right bank.

Confirmation of Payee (CoP) is an account name checking service. It helps you to check that you’re sending money to the right person or business, if the beneficiary bank is signed up to it.  The main responses you’ll get are a match, close match or no match:

• Match - the name on the account is correct
• Close Match -the account is registered to someone or an organisation with a similar name, if this happens we will show you the actual name on the account
• No Match -the account details don’t match.

Payment purpose    

We’ll ask you to choose a reason for the payment. We’ll then share information with you to help protect you from scams.

For example, if you choose ‘Paying a family member’ we’ll ask you to check directly with them in person or on a known and trusted number. This is to stop you paying criminals who impersonate family members.

Pay at a later date and time   

You’ll be given the choice to make your payment straight away or to send it on a date in the future. When you wait to make a payment, it gives you time to change your mind. This is because criminals are known to put pressure on their victims to pay quickly.

Confirmation to proceed with the payment

We’ll ask you to check that:

• the information you’ve given us is correct
• you’ve read the messages we’ve shown you before you confirm you want to go ahead with the payment.

Similar checks are in place when you use Telephone Banking and our branches. This way your protected whichever way you choose to pay.

Our automated system

If our fraud detection systems notice something unusual, we may contact you using our automated system. This is the quickest way for us to get in touch with you. 

We may call, text, or email you.

Phone call

The call will ask for some security details so that we know we’ve reached the right person. 

• You'll be asked to confirm your name and then your date of birth.
• We'll then read out the transactions we want you to confirm.
• If you confirm you recognise the transactions, you can continue banking as normal. If any payments were declined, you may need to make them again.
• If you don't recognise one or more of the transactions, you can speak with one of our team who will help you further.

Remember, we'll never ask for details such as your card PIN, Online Banking passwords and One Time Passcodes (OTP). If you're asked to share these, hang up and call us anytime on 0330 9 123 123 or 0800 313 4321 (freephone).

Interactive text message

The first message we send will let you know we need to check some transactions with you. The next message we send will include the transactions and some information that we’ll need you to respond to.

• We’ll only ask you to reply with either a ‘Y’ for yes, or ‘N’ for no. We won’t ask you to reply with anything else.
• If you’re happy with all the details, reply ‘Y’ to the messages. We’ll update your account and you can continue banking as normal. You may need to make any declined transactions again.
• If you reply ‘N’ to any of our messages, we’ll arrange to call you as soon as possible between 8am -10pm, 7 days a week. Outside of these hours we’ll give you a number to call us, which is available 24/7.

Push Notifications

We may use push notifications to alert you of unusual activity in your accounts. This will apply for customers using the Mobile Banking app and who have push notifications enabled. If you receive one, you'll be asked to review the transactions and confirm if you recognise them or not.

If you do recognise them, you are asked to confirm using Face ID. In the instance that you do not recognise these transactions, we will send you a text message and ask you to call us. 

If we can’t contact you

We’ll leave a message asking you to call back. Your payments could be declined, and your account put on hold until we can speak to you.

Check your details

If the number we have for you isn’t up to date we won’t be able to contact you about fraud and scams. You can check and change the details we have for you through Online and Telephone Banking and in any branch.

We're involved in a number of initiatives to fight fraud with other finance providers and agencies.

• We're members of UK Finance and we take part in industry fraud initiatives like Take Five. We share intelligence to help protect our customers and work with other banks to recover stolen funds.
• We also help fund the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit (DCPCU). A police unit with a national remit formed as a partnership between the City of London Police, the Metropolitan Police Service, the UK banking industry trade association UK Finance and the Home Office.
• By being part of the Banking Protocol initiative between the police, banks and trading standards. We’ve trained our staff to help identify if a customer is about to fall victim to a scam.
• We’re a member of Cifas, the UK’s fraud prevention service. We work with them to protect our customers and reduce instances of fraud and financial crime.
• We’re part of the Stop Scams UK initiative, 159. This collaboration between banks and telephone companies gives our customers a safe and secure number to call if they think they’re being scammed. If customers get a call, SMS or email that appears to come from their bank asking them to transfer money or share sensitive information, we would urge them to stop, hang up and call 159. Or they can call us using the number on the back of their card.