Millions of bank customers are being warned of a series of scams aiming to empty their accounts.
The Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) issued a warning on Monday about a new surge in text message scams targeting several of the country's biggest banks, The Mirror reports.
CTSI experts say they've seen "considerable evidence" of the attempts at fraud, with messages claiming to be from some of the UK's largest banks and building societies, including Barclays, Halifax, HSBC and Lloyds.
The misleading messages purport to be security alerts from named banks, asking for confirmation of a payment made from a digital device not used before.
Another such message asked the recipient to tap a link to confirm payment to a named person.
But when unsuspecting people clicked on the links contained in the messages, they would be asked for the recipient's bank login details, which the CTSI said puts the target "at serious risk of theft and banking fraud".
Trading standards officials say there has been a surge in digital scams of this kind during the pandemic, including a scam campaign involving fake Royal Mail texts and emails which encouraged targets to enter payment and personal details to receive a package supposedly awaiting delivery.
Katherine Hart, a lead officer at CTSI, said: "I am witnessing so many reports of this scam; indeed, I have received multiple versions of it on my phone. The public is very vulnerable to this type of fraud, especially when more people rely on online payments.
"Fraudsters change the form and methods of their scams to match shifting consumer behaviour.
"The surge in online shopping and payments means that the public must be more vigilant when making online payments and receiving messages claiming to be from their bank.
"If you receive a suspicious text like this, please contact your bank directly and verify with them. Also, forward any scam texts to 7726, which is a free reporting service ran by Ofcom. We must protect ourselves and others from these scams but also provide vital intelligence to authorities."
People who think they've spotted a scam are asked to report it to Action Fraud.
