The fake bank adviser: the call that wants to empty your account

The phone rings. On the other end, a calm and professional voice introduces itself as your bank adviser, or as your bank's anti-fraud team. It sometimes knows your name, your bank, unsettling details. The message is always the same: fraud has just been detected on your account, and you must act right now.

Why this call is so convincing

This scam succeeds because it reverses the roles. You are not the one calling out of caution, it is the bank "protecting" you. Your guard naturally drops. Several ingredients reinforce the illusion.

The number shown is often the genuine one for your branch: this is spoofing, a forgery of the number that makes the call credible. The details the criminal cites sometimes come from a data leak or an earlier phishing message. And above all, the urgency is kept up from start to finish, to stop you thinking or checking.

How the trap unfolds

The script almost always plays out in three stages. First the alert: a suspicious transaction, a payment you would not have recognised. Then the staging of "securing" the account: you are asked to approve a notification in your app, to share a code received by text, or to confirm a transaction in order to "block" it. In reality, you are authorising the criminal's transfer.

In some versions, the fake adviser offers to move your funds to a secure account while the "investigation" is sorted out. That account is theirs. It is the climax of the trap, and the clearest sign of a scam.

The phrases that should stop you

A few formulas never come from the mouth of a real adviser.

• "Give me the code you have just received by text."
• "Approve the notification to cancel the fraudulent transaction."
• "We are going to move your money to safety in another account."
• "Whatever you do, don't hang up, stay on the line with me."

If one of these phrases is spoken, you are dealing with a criminal.

The right response, in two moves

The defence comes down to two simple movements. Hang up, without guilt or explanation. Then call your bank back on the official number on the back of your card or in your app. Above all, do not use the number that just called you, and do not call back a number dictated by your contact. Calling through a safe channel is enough to check that no fraud is under way.

Keep the guiding principle in mind: a bank never asks for your codes and never makes you move your money.

And the IBAN in all this

The fake adviser may also try to get you to register a new payee, their own. Before adding or paying an unusual IBAN, check it is consistent with our IBAN checker, and always confirm a change of bank details through an independent channel.

If you have already acted

If you have approved a transaction or shared a code, contact your bank immediately through an official channel to try to block the transfer, and freeze your card. Keep the call history and any text received, file a report, then report the facts to Action Fraud.

To place this scam within the wider picture of banking fraud, return to the guide Banking scams.