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What To Do If Your Bank Account Is Hacked?

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Having your bank account hacked is one of the scariest and most devastating types of crime you can experience. It can cause immediate financial difficulties and long-term harm to your life, as well as being very distressing. While banks have robust processes for dealing with fraud of this kind, those processes are not always perfect and the outcome isn’t always satisfactory.

If you believe that your bank account has been hacked or is at risk of being hacked, there are a number of key questions and concerns you are likely to have. It is also important to note that, if the hack was due to your bank or a third party breaching data protection rules, you might potentially be owed compensation for this breach.

In this article, we cover the following common questions people often have around hacked bank accounts:

While we hope you will find this article helpful, we are also very happy to answer any questions you have directly. To speak to a member of our team about a hacked bank account due to a data breach, you can fill in our secure online claim form or give us a call on 0330 041 5135.

Can someone hack my bank account with my email address?

Your email address alone is not enough for someone to hack your bank account, but if someone has your email address, they could potentially use this to extract more personal information about you that could ultimately help them to access your bank account.

Once money hackers have your email address, they may use this to target you with sophisticated ‘phishing’ attacks. This is where they use the information they have about you to attempt to get more personal information from you.

For example, they might send fraudulent emails that appear to be from your bank, asking you to verify your account details, your PINs and other security information. They could then use that information for hacking into accounts of yours, giving them the ability to make fraudulent payments and transfers from your account.

If your email address has been exposed in a data breach, you therefore need to be very vigilant about anyone contacting you by email claiming to represent your bank. There is never any reason your bank would need you to share your account, PINs or other security information via email.

Can someone hack my bank account with my phone number?

A phone number alone is not enough for someone to hack your bank account. But, as outlined above with regard to someone having your email address, someone with your phone number could potentially call or text you as part of a phishing scam with the ultimate aim of hacking money from your accounts.

If your phone number has been included in a data breach, you should be vigilant for any calls or texts from scammers. If someone calls or texts you claiming to be from your bank and you are unsure whether they are legitimate, it is a good idea to call back on your bank’s publicly available customer service number to make sure.

How to know if your bank account has been hacked in the UK

Some of the most common signs that your bank account may have been hacked are:

  • Your card is declined when trying to pay for something – This could be because your account has been emptied out or because your bank has noticed suspicious activity on your account and has frozen it.
  • There are transactions you don’t recognise on your account – Money hackers will often make small purchases to test an account they have compromised before making bigger ones, so even small unfamiliar transactions can be a red flag.
  • You can’t login to your account online – This could be due to hackers having made too many failed log-in attempts to your account.
  • Your account is empty – This is often a clear-cut sign that your account has been hacked.
  • Your bank’s fraud team have contacted you – Although, as set out above, you need to be very careful to verify that you really are talking to your bank’s fraud team as it is a common tactic for bank hackers to contact you pretending to be from your bank’s fraud team.

What is the first thing you do when you get hacked in the UK?

If you believe your bank account has been hacked, you should contact your bank’s fraud team directly. You should do this by looking up their contact details online to make sure you are confident that you are genuinely speaking to your bank’s fraud team.

You should make sure to keep a written record of all communications with your bank, including the times and dates of any communications and who you spoke to.

What other steps do you need to take if your bank account is hacked?

Other steps you should take if your bank account is hacked include:

  • Change your PINs and passwords
  • Review all transactions on all of your accounts to look for any that seem suspicious
  • Check your credit history to see if the hackers have tried to take out credit in your name
  • Make a police report
  • Consider making a compensation claim – if your account was hacked due to someone else sharing your personal information in a breach of the Data Protection Act 2018, then you may be owed compensation for this

What compensation can you claim if your bank account is hacked due to a data breach in the UK?

If your bank account was hacked due to a data breach, then you may be able to claim two main types of compensation covering:

Financial losses

This would cover any specific financial losses you have experienced due to the bank hackers, such as money being transferred out of your account.

Distress

This covers the emotional impact on you of having your bank account hacked, including such issues as difficulty sleeping, feeling ill, being unsettled and stress.

How Hayes Connor can support you if your bank account has been hacked due to a data breach in the UK

If your bank account was hacked due to a breach of UK data protection law, our solicitors may be able to support you to make a compensation claim. Our team can act for clients on a no win, no fee basis, removing the financial risk of pursuing a claim for a hacked bank account.

At Hayes Connor, we are one of the largest teams of data breach claims specialists in the UK, with a wealth of combined experience. We can advise you on whether you are likely to have grounds for a claim, the level of compensation you may be entitled to and what you need to do to start a claim. Our team can then be on hand to guide you through every step of the claims process.

Our goal is to ensure that anyone who is affected by a data breach is able to get the compensation they deserve, while making the claims process as simple and stress-free as possible.

You can find out more about our expertise and how we handle data breach claims here.

To start a claim, you can use our online claim form and we will get back to you shortly to let you know if we believe you have grounds for compensation.

If you would like to speak to a member of our team about a hacked bank account, please do not hesitate to give us a call on 0330 041 5135.