Valour’s Tips for staying safe online

At Valour your security is important to us.

We understand that sometimes the internet can seem unsafe and a worrying place. As a company we work hard to protect you but there are things you can do to help stay safe online.

• Golden Rule - Never give out your passwords, having different passwords for different website is important too, your internet banking password should be more secure than your Facebook password.

For ideas on creating secure passwords that you can remember, use the first letter of a phrase you can remember – for example:

My favourite film is Die Hard 2 or maybe Die Hard 1? I watch it every Christmas!

When you take the first letter, numbers, and pronunciation marks becomes a password of:

MffiDH2omDH1?IwieC!

You can remember it easily but it is a very hard password for a hacker to crack! Now think of your own phrase and away you go!

• Don’t post any personal information online – like your address, email address or mobile number. And do not email your bank details or passwords, as emails are not secure.

We have a secure portal you can logon to, so you can send us any secure information with confidence.

• Think carefully before posting pictures or videos of yourself. Pictures can contain location information about where you live. And do not post while you are away, it tells people you are not at home, and so for burglars, it may be a good time to rob you.
• Keep your privacy settings as high as possible, this can be done in your browser.
• Be careful even if you receive emails that look as though they are from your bank and are genuine. Hover your mouse over the web address it came from, check for spelling or poor grammar or wording; these can give away clues that it is a fraudster attempting to get your bank details. Do not click on any links in emails. Google your bank, or Savvy, and click on the proper link and then login from there.
• If someone phones you saying they are from your bank, or Savvy.co.uk, a third party you have given consent for your details to be passed over to, they should not ask you for bank details, your pin or any confidential information. If you are unsure, end the call, and then look up the number on the web site and phone back using a different phone. (If they called on your landline for example, phone back on your mobile). Fraudsters can fake numbers they are phoning you from.
• Don’t befriend people you don’t know on social media, they might just be using social media to get more information about you and your habits.
• Don’t meet up with people you’ve met online; if you must make sure you are in a public place with lots of other people about.
• Remember that not everyone online is who they say they are. Long lost friends might not be who they say they are.
• Think carefully about what you say before you post something online, once it is online it is there forever.
• If you see something online that makes you feel uncomfortable, unsafe, or worried: leave the website, run a virus scanner of your computer, and make sure that unsafe programs haven’t been downloaded, Valour suggest Avast Free Antivirus.

Savvy will never ask you for your password to our portal, if we call you and you want to make sure it is Savvy then please call back on 0800 007 5888 (or 0330 002 0118 from your mobile phone).