Impersonation and phishing

TSB phishing scams: reporting, refunds and recovery

How to respond to a fake TSB call, text or phishing message in 2026, with a practical sequence for protecting the account, preserving evidence and claiming back money if a scam payment has already been made.

Eleanor PriceUpdated 2026-09-287 min read

Quick answer

Do not use the phone number, link or security instructions in a suspicious message. Stop the interaction, secure the account through TSB's official app/site/number, report any payment immediately and preserve the message. If you were tricked into sending a UK Faster Payment or CHAPS transfer, the mandatory APP-scam reimbursement rules may apply depending on the facts.

Break contact and secure access first

A convincing fraudster creates urgency: “your account is under attack”, “move the money now”, “read me the code”. The first defensive action is physical - end the call or close the message. Then contact TSB through a route you found independently, not by redialling the caller or tapping the link.

Real bank security does not require you to transfer money to a “safe account”. A request to move £4,800 to protect it is a red flag even if the caller knows your name, postcode or recent transaction.

If you entered credentials into a fake site, change the relevant login details using a clean device and official TSB channel. If card details were exposed, freeze or replace the card as appropriate. If a one-time approval was given, tell the bank exactly what you approved and when.

Do not delete the scam message yet. Screenshots, phone numbers, URLs, payment references and chat logs may help the bank and police understand the path of the fraud.

Report the payments and understand reimbursement

List each outgoing payment with date, amount and destination. A claim involving three transfers of £1,200, £2,000 and £650 is clearer when those payments are listed separately rather than described as “about £4,000”. The bank can then trace and assess each transaction.

Report quickly. Fraud teams may be able to contact the receiving institution or attempt recovery even where reimbursement rules ultimately require a separate assessment.

For qualifying UK APP scams over Faster Payments or CHAPS, mandatory reimbursement protections have applied since October 2024. The standard maximum is £85,000 per claim; firms can choose to reimburse above that. Most eligible claims are expected to be resolved within five business days, with more time allowed in cases needing additional investigation.

An optional excess of up to £100 can exist in the scheme, but it cannot be applied to vulnerable consumers. Scope and exceptions matter, so do not assume every card purchase, crypto transfer or civil dispute is automatically covered by the same rule.

Build the claim and incident record

Ask for the reasoning in writing. Was the payment outside the scheme, treated as a civil dispute, or rejected because of the customer standard of caution? Respond to the actual reason with evidence rather than resubmitting the same story in longer form.

A complaint about fraud or payment services normally has the shorter complaint timetable. If TSB's final response still leaves you dissatisfied, an eligible case can be taken to the Financial Ombudsman Service within the applicable referral period.

In the first minutes: stop communication and contact TSB independently. Next: secure login and card access. Then: list every payment and preserve evidence. Finally: report the scam and obtain a case reference. If the loss is £6,000, speed and a clean payment list are more valuable than spending two hours writing a perfect narrative before telling the bank.

After the urgent steps, check email and other accounts for credential reuse. A phishing event can begin with banking but expose an email account that the fraudster uses to reset other services.

Deadlines, vulnerability and identity security

The PSR's consolidated APP-scam policy allows sending firms to deny claims submitted more than 13 months after the final payment in a claim. That is another reason to report immediately even if you are embarrassed or still hoping the fraudster will return the money.

A victim who waits a year while a fake investment platform shows invented profits risks both further losses and a harder evidence trail.

After phishing, change any reused password and inspect email forwarding rules, cloud accounts and mobile-provider settings. Fraudsters sometimes keep access to email after the bank itself has been secured, then use that access for later password resets or invoice interception.

Tell close contacts if your messaging account was compromised so they do not trust payment requests sent in your name.

If illness, disability, bereavement, coercion or another vulnerability affected how the scam unfolded or how quickly you could report it, state that plainly and provide relevant evidence where appropriate. It can matter to how the bank assesses warnings, timeliness and the support it should have provided.

Recognise impersonation tactics and keep reporting

Telephone numbers and sender names can be spoofed. A call that appears to come from a familiar TSB number is not proof that the caller is TSB. What matters is whether you initiated the contact and whether the requested action makes sense for a bank security process.

If uncertain, hang up and reconnect using a number from the back of the card, the official app or TSB website. Use a different phone if you are worried the original call has not disconnected properly.

Fraudsters often combine accurate personal data with a false emergency. They may know the last four digits of a card or quote a real transaction, then claim the remaining balance must be moved. Real account protection does not require a customer to send money to another personal account.

A £10,000 “safe account transfer” is still a customer-authorised bank transfer if the victim presses send, which is why the APP-scam process becomes relevant after the deception is discovered.

Scams are engineered to manipulate attention and trust. Delaying because the story feels embarrassing only gives criminals more time to move the money and makes the evidence older. Report first; analyse how the deception worked afterwards.

If the victim is vulnerable because of illness, bereavement, cognitive difficulty or another circumstance, tell TSB. Vulnerability can be relevant to how reimbursement protections are applied.

Create a short incident timeline while the details are fresh: the number or address that contacted you, what they claimed, every code or piece of information you disclosed, each payment and the moment you realised the contact was false. Give TSB that sequence rather than repeatedly retelling the story from memory; it is clearer for both the fraud team and any later complaint.

If no money has left, the incident can still require action. Change compromised credentials from a trusted device, secure the linked email account, review new payees or cards and watch for follow-up contact pretending to be the bank's recovery team. Scam attempts often continue after the first conversation because the attacker now knows which story got your attention.

Sources and verification

MYBANKANSWERS VERDICT

Eleanor Price - Consumer Rights Writer

The key to a TSB phishing incident is sequence. Break contact, secure access, report the money movement and preserve evidence - in that order. The current APP reimbursement rules give many UK transfer-scam victims materially stronger protection than a few years ago, but they are not a reason to delay reporting or to assume every loss is automatically covered. A precise list of payments and a clean timeline give the bank the best chance to trace funds and assess reimbursement quickly.

Verification note: product terms, fees, limits and support routes can change. This guide was checked against the provider's current information and relevant UK regulatory or consumer-protection sources for the 2026 position. For the specific issue covered on this page - TSB phishing scam refund 2026: fake calls, texts and recovery - re-check the live TSB information linked in Sources before relying on a fee, limit or support route that may have changed.