Scams are everywhere and scammers are becoming increasingly sophisticated. It’s important to be vigilant in order to protect yourself from those who are looking to trick you out of your hard-earned money.
Fraudsters will often pose as legitimate businesses you have relationships with, asking you to transfer money, reset passwords, or move money into a holding account. They will also put an immense amount of pressure on you, hoping that you will make a mistake.
For this reason, your Shoal account only allows you to withdraw funds to another UK bank account that is in your name.
If you are in any doubt, do not respond and/or terminate the call. Find the contact information for the company from their official website, or any official documentation you may have received from them and contact them via their official channels to clarify the suspicious request. The business should be able to tell you instantly if it was an official request or not.
Shoal will always contact you via the in-app chat, or by email. If in doubt about the legitimacy of any email from Shoal, please contact us via in-app chat.
At Shoal, we care about our community's safety, so for this reason we've created a list of dos and don'ts to help you stay safe online:
Do 👍:
Never share your personal information that can be used to gain access to and take control of your accounts
Keep an eye out for fake websites: if you are unsure check for online reviews. Little or no reviews of a company may be an indication that it’s not legitimate or the URL is different to the official company's URL
Avoid unexpected contact
Be careful when responding to emails, phone calls, text messages and letters that you weren’t expecting
Be extra careful when buying items from social media or marketplace apps
Use a password manager to create strong, unique passwords for each of your accounts
Do Not 👎:
Click on any links in unsolicited emails or text messages
Share your PIN or password with anyone, even if they claim to be from your bank or building society
Make a bank transfer to someone you don’t know or haven’t met, especially when you are asked to make a transfer in advance
Make a deposit payment for something that seems too good to be true