Nationwide fights again in opposition to scammers with a checker instrument to spotlight dodgy telephone calls

Nationwide Building Society is stepping up in the fight to protect customers from a wave of scam calls.

Britain’s biggest mutual has launched a scam-checking tool which will tell customers if they are on the phone to a genuine Nationwide employee or a scammer impersonating one. 

If a customer receives a call from someone saying they are from Nationwide, they can now use the call checker located in their banking app to check if they are really from the building society. 

Customers will be able to open the Nationwide app, click ‘more’ then ‘call checker’ and instantly see whether they are on a call with a Nationwide employee. 

The screen will display either ‘you’re on a call with ‘Alex” or ‘you’re not on a call with us’.

Nationwide customers will be able to check in their banking app whether they are on the phone to a genuine Nationwide employee or a scammer

The tool comes as customers are being plagued by eight scam calls a month on average – equivalent to two every week, according to research from Nationwide.

Millions of pounds is lost every year to impersonation scams – where scammers impersonate members of bank branch staff, HMRC or even the police to extract money from people. 

Scammers stole £65.9million in 2024 through impersonation scams, according to banking industry body UK Finance. 

Nationwide’s own customer data show this type of scam comprises 17 per cent of reported scams. 

And scammers are using increasingly ruthless tactics when pretending to be a customer’s bank, asking victims to share personal details, provide security codes in addition to transferring money, and even telling people to lie to their bank or building society when they perform scam checks. 

This gives scammers access to their victim’s bank account and by asking them to lie to their bank – often suggesting they say they are paying a friend or family – it will help them go under the radar and face fewer checks than a high-risk payment such as an investment.

More than half of people think scam calls are becoming more frequent while more than one in four people do not feel confident in spotting a genuine call from their bank. 

All ages are affected by scam calls, but Nationwide found younger adults are particularly vulnerable to them. 

A quarter of 25-34-year-olds would return a call to an unknown number, and 44 per cent have received a scam call, compared to 28 per cent across all ages. 

Jim Winters, director of economic crime at Nationwide, said: ‘Scammers are becoming more sophisticated, and impersonation calls are one of the most common ways they trick people into handing over money. 

‘Our Call Checker feature gives our customers peace of mind by confirming if a call is genuine, or not. 

‘It’s a simple and effective step that could prevent someone from becoming the next crime statistic.’