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Twitter user Emma (@_justemma_) received a message about a new payee that had purportedly been set up on her account. She sent a screenshot of the message to the bank asking if they could
confirm if the message was real. She said: “Just received this and I've not added anyone, checked my mobile app and online and I can't see anyone has been added. “It’s come through
on the same number I receive OTP codes so I'm panicking now! Is this genuine please?” The fraudulent message read: “An attempt to add D Hicks as a new trusted payee was successful on
07/11. If this was NOT you please visit: https://recipient-failed-attached.com.” Another Twitter user, Dom (@about_a_dom) responded to warn her the message looked “dodgy” to them. READ MORE:
COLD WEATHER PAYMENT PAYS £25 WHEN THERE'S VERY COLD WEATHER - ARE YOU ELIGIBLE? Emma replied to share her confusion about the situation: “I can’t see anyone added but it came from the
normal number. Don't know if that can even happen! Scared rn [right now].” Dom responded again to warn her that smishing fraudsters are able to send messages that appear genuine. He
said: “Yeah they can spoof the number that the text appears to have come from to make it look like it came from the genuine number.” Emma expressed her surprise that scammers can do this in
response, saying she “didn’t even know that could happen”. DON'T MISS Santander then responded to Emma to clarify the message was fake: “Hi Emma, this is a scam text message. Please
forward this to [email protected].” From this month, Santander is limiting the number of payments related to cryptocurrency in efforts to prevent scams. The bank said it has seen a
“large increase” in UK customers being victims of cryptocurrency fraud and scams in recent months. From November 15, customers of the high street bank will be restricted to a £1,000 limit
per cryptocurrency transaction. They will also only be allowed to spend £3,000 in any rolling 30 days period. READ MORE: WARNING OF 'REAL RISK' OF STRUGGLING BRITONS EXHAUSTING
SAVINGS THIS WINTER These limits will be applied to each Santander account and will cover both online and mobile banking payments. The new policy will not prevent payments from
cryptocurrency exchanges from being received. Santander said the payment limitations will also not apply to payments made into cryptocurrency exchanges with credit and debit cards, through
telephone banking, in Santander branches, and through third-party provider payments through open banking. Customers who have previously paid for cryptocurrency will be given “advance notice”
of the upcoming payment limitations. The bank is also looking into blocking certain cryptocurrency payments however it has not yet announced a date when this will happen and will notify
customers in advance of the block. This block will include telephone banking and in-branch payments in addition to online and mobile banking. Santander said it will “continue” to keep its
position under review and will continue to keep customers updated on future changes. The group said each bank in the UK makes its own decision with regard to cryptocurrency scam protections
for customers and that it was not the first in the UK to introduce restrictions on customers’ payments to cryptocurrency exchanges. Last year, Natwest Group capped the daily amount customers
could send to cryptocurrency exchanges.