Fraudulent e-mails and websites

Advice for cardholders

You may have recently received e-mails or telephone calls claiming to be from ‘Visa’ or the ‘Visa fraud department’.

Please be aware that Visa is not involved in these e-mails or telephone calls – this is fraudulent activity by criminals. Visa will never e-mail or telephone cardholders to ask for their account number or other card, personal or security details.

We would remind cardholders that they should never provide their account, security or personal details in response to unsolicited communications claiming to be from any financial institution.

What is phishing?

'Phishing' is the term used for the activities of criminals who create and use fraudulent e-mails and associated websites. These are designed to look like e-mails and websites of well-known legitimate businesses, financial institutions, and government agencies.

These e-mails and websites are created in order to deceive internet users into disclosing their bank and financial account information or other personal data such as mother’s maiden name, addresses, usernames and passwords. This information could then be used for criminal purposes, such as identity theft and fraud.

The threat from phishing is small, but it is always better to be alert – especially during this busy seasonal shopping period.

What you should do

If you receive an e-mail claiming to come from Visa, your bank, or any other organisation, requesting personal account information, do not provide the details.

Instead, contact your card-issuing bank to determine whether or not the e-mail was sent from them.

You can also forward the message to us for further investigation, to phishing@visa.com