Email security
Nationwide will never request confidential information or security details in an email.
Occasionally, bogus emails are used in an attempt to extract personal banking details from you.
If you do receive an email that seems to have been sent from Nationwide asking for your personal banking details, pin, passwords, or you are suspicious in any way, please delete it immediately. Do not call any telephone number or action any request in the email.
If you suspect you may have revealed your details, you should call us immediately on 08457 30 20 10 and advise us of what has happened. You should also change your log in details to something only you know.
From time to time we may email you with details of our products and services that we feel may be of interest to you.
These emails will come from Nationwide@nationwidebuildingsociety-email.co.uk and will always display your postcode at the top and bottom of the email so you can be sure that it is genuine.
If you have obtained a quote for or bought Car, Travel, Shop, Offices or Buy to Let insurance online you will receive confirmation and follow-up emails. These emails will come from nationwide@nationwide-email.co.uk and will also always display your postcode at the top and bottom of the email.
If you have requested to receive access to future AGM documents by email you will receive email that comes from nationwidebuildingsociety@electoralreform.co.uk and will also always display your postcode at the top and bottom of the email.
What you can do about email security
It is vital to ensure that your email is secure. There are three main areas you need to be aware of – the format of the incoming mail, attachments to the mail and protecting your password in order to prevent phishing attacks. See the tabs below for more information.
There are two standard formats you can accept emails in - HTML and Plain text.
- When email is sent in HTML format you are in fact being sent a web page. Web pages can be manipulated to hide viruses. By opening an email in this format you could be leaving your PC wide open to attack
- To prevent this you should only open HTML emails when you are sure they are from a trusted source
- Emails received in plain text could still contain a virus in an attached file. Please see email attachments for guidance on what to do
- If you do choose to accept HTML emails then only accept them from a trusted source
- Also make sure you have all the latest versions of your operating system, mail reader and anti-virus installed
Email attachments are the files attached to an email that you have to click to open. Many of the most common computer viruses and other malicious software are spread through email attachments.
- If a file attached to an email message contains a virus, it's often launched when you open the file attachment (usually by double-clicking the attachment icon)
- When you receive an email attachment before you open it double check to make sure it is from a trusted source and is also something you would expect to see
- If it is not from a trusted source, delete it
- If it looks like it is from a trusted source, but is unusual to have an attachment, delete it
- It's better to be safe than sorry. Genuine mails can always be re-sent.
A strong password is one that is difficult for others to uncover. So what does it look like?
- A strong password consists of at least six characters (and the more characters, the stronger the password) that are a combination of letters, numbers and symbols (@, #, $, %, etc.) if allowed
- Passwords are typically case-sensitive, so a strong password contains letters in both uppercase and lowercase
- They also do not contain words that can be found in a dictionary or parts of the user's own name, names of family members, birth dates or pet names
- Don't write down your passwords
- Change your passwords often
- Use different passwords for each site you use
Please note: Neither we nor the police will ever contact you to ask you to reveal your online banking or payment card PINs, or your password information.