Tech giants come under pressure to block bank copycat websites amid surge in fraud

Tech giants are under pressure to block bank copycat websites amid a wave of fraud and theft.

The scam websites look like real banking transactions and scammers click on links and enter login and password details.

That leaves them open to their accounts being robbed – and new figures show the scale of the problem, with more than 2,000 such sites reported in 2023.

The consumer champion teamed up with the DNS Research Federation (DNSRF), an Oxford-based nonprofit that conducts data-driven policy research, to find out how widespread the problem is.

The DNSRF discovered that there were more than 2,000 fake URLs (Uniform Resource Locator) with names such as Barclays, HSBC, Halifax, Lloyds, Monzo, Nationwide, NatWest, Santander and Starling.

These websites were flagged and closed, but consumer group Which? fears that they represent only the tip of the iceberg.

The scam websites look like real banking transactions and scammers click on links and enter login and password details (Stock Photo)

Which? Director of Policy and Advocacy, Rocio Concha, said: “It is deeply concerning that thousands of bank copycat websites have been reported in one year, potentially exposing millions of consumers to fraudulent online content.

“Consumers just trying to bank online should not have the responsibility of reporting scam sites and chasing down domain registrars to take them down.”

She said domain registrars, the companies that enable the creation and operation of scam websites, “have a much bigger role to play in the fight against online fraud.”

She added: ‘With an election just around the corner, the next government must make the fight against fraud a national priority and impose new legal obligations on these companies to prevent scammers from setting up these fraudulent copycat websites.’

The banks said they have teams that continuously monitor and remove malicious copycat websites.