Please remain vigilant and take necessary precautions so that you do not fall victim to scams.

We are aware that fraudsters target university customers (businesses needing to pay a university), by tricking them into changing a university’s bank account details held on record by the customer, to the fraudster’s bank account details before making a payment. If the payment is made, the money is diverted to an account controlled by the fraudster and never arrives at the university.

• Unexpected or unusual requests to change bank/payment details for the university
• More frequent than usual or duplicate invoices for a product/service
• Contact from a false or unknown individual at the university
• Sense of urgency – fraudsters will often pressure their targets to make a decision quickly
• Incorrect domain name or email address – ensure you double check the email address which the correspondence came from to ensure it originates from the university’s genuine email address (e.g. at King’s, email addresses end in @kcl.ac.uk)
• Fraudsters may use the name of a genuine employee, but hovering over the email address name or checking its properties, may reveal that the originator's email address is different to a genuine university email address
• Check for any irregularities in university contact/payment details, including changes to names, addresses and invoiced amounts
• Don't step outside your usual payment method
• Spelling or grammatical errors in correspondence
• Where possible, send remittance advices to your normal trusted university contact email address once an invoice has been paid
• Be careful about the type of information you share online about your business

Please treat any request to change the university’s bank account details or contact details with extreme caution.

If you are concerned about whether a communication asking you to make payment or change the bank account details of the university is genuine, please do not contact the email or phone number provided in the correspondence received. Please instead confirm details directly with the university using contact details you know to be correct e.g. on King’s College London’s official website (such as calling directly via our general switchboard, where you’ll be directed to the relevant member of staff to check the validity of the request).

If you suspect you have been a victim of fraud, contact your bank immediately. Additionally, you should report this to Action Fraud. Action Fraud is the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime.

Please also provide details about the suspected fraud attempt to us at counter-fraud@kcl.ac.uk.

See our Counter Fraud page for more information.