Vishing is where a fraudster uses voice messages or phone calls to try to steal identities, and financial information like your PIN, card details and Digipass code.

The term comes from the combination of ‘phishing’ and ‘voice’. Phishing is where fraudsters use email, regular phone calls and fake websites to dupe people into giving them personal details and financial information.

Vishing is specifically the use of a VOIP service (Voice Over Internet Protocol, or an internet phone service), which enables fraudsters to communicate with their potential victims via automated voice messages and the phone keypad.

Vishers can create fake caller ID profiles so that their phone number seems legitimate, and vishing requests sound urgent, to panic the victim into acting without thinking.

 Examples of vishing:

• Your bank account has been compromised
  You receive call from what appears to be Triodos Bank’s phone number. When you answer, you hear a recording pretending to be from Triodos, saying that your bank account has been compromised, and you need to call a freephone number to reset your security details. Calling this number, you would hear another automated message asking for your bank account number, Digipass code or other personal details via the phone keypad.
• You’re eligible for a loan
  You are offered loan or credit terms too good to be true (they probably are), and to receive the money, you just need to pay an upfront fee or provide your security details.
• You’re due a refund
  You receive a message that says you are due a refund. This is usually someone claiming to be from a trusted organisation. If you opt in – usually by pressing a number on your telephone - you will be redirected to a call centre agent who will attempt to defraud you or steal your information.
• Don’t miss this investment opportunity
  An automated voice message tells you about an investment opportunity too good to turn down. You’ll be encouraged to transfer money to invest in a company or service that doesn’t exist.
• You’ve won a prize
  Victims hear an automated voice message about a free offer or prize, and just need to pay postage, redemption or admin fees to claim. There’s often a deadline to hurry people into handing over their card details.

What you can do

If you receive an unexpected phone call with an automated response, hang up, search for the company’s genuine contact details online and check whether the call was legitimate. If it was, the company will be able to help you, and if it was a vishing attempt, letting the company know enables them to take action, and you will have protected yourself from fraud.

If the call relates to an investment opportunity, check the FCA register to see if the investor is regulated, and confirm the company exists by checking Companies House.

How to report a vishing scam

If you think you have been a victim of a vishing attack, call us immediately on 0330 355 0355. Then report to the FCA using their reporting form.

If you have lost money to suspected investment fraud, report it to Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040.

Money mules are people used to help launder money, often without realising that’s what they’re doing. They help move illegitimate funds (money gained illegally) between accounts so that the money then appears to be legitimate. They may be asked to receive money into their account, then withdraw it and put it into another account, sometimes in another country. Sometimes the money mules are offered compensation or commission.

Even if money mules don’t know the money they’re transferring is fraudulent, they are still committing fraud and money laundering, and could be sentenced to time in prison or to pay a fine.

Money mules are often recruited into this activity through false job adverts, or social media posts that promote quick money-making opportunities. Sometimes they are duped by fake social media profiles that pretend to want a romantic relationship with the victim to gain their trust and affection before asking this favour or blackmailing them. This is also known as romance fraud.

Never move money between accounts you don’t know and trust, especially because someone else has asked you to, or if you don’t know where that money has come from. If you are suspicious of money laundering, call us immediately on 0330 355 0355.

Yes, you can split your ISA allowance into different types of ISA: Cash, Stocks & Shares, Lifetime, and Innovative Finance.

Do not respond to any email that asks you for information about your internet banking log in details. If you have received a suspicious email, do not respond and call our Contact Team as soon as you can during our opening hours on 0330 355 0355 to check if it is a genuine email.

Our Contact Team is available 8am-6pm Monday-Friday, and 10am-4pm on weekends for fraud related enquiries only.

Alternatively please email us at contact@triodos.co.uk from the registered email address we hold for you and mark it urgent in the subject line.

You can switch between funds and share classes by completing a fund switch form. 

A fund switch is when you sell your holding in one fund or share class and buy back another. For example, if you hold the Triodos Global Equities Impact Fund and want to switch to the Triodos Pioneer Impact Fund you should download and complete the fund switch form. This will instruct us to sell your holding in the Triodos Global Equities Impact Fund and buy back the Triodos Pioneer Impact Fund.

We don’t charge for carrying out this instruction and the switch takes place at the same valuation point, however you must still meet the minimum investment amount of £1,000 and minimum top up amount of £500.

If you would like to switch, please ensure you have read the relevant Key Investor Information Document (KIID) which can be found under Key Documents.

Please note, when selling your holding outside of an ISA you will realise a capital gain or loss. Most individuals have a capital gains allowance of £12,300 (for the 2020/21 tax year), below which there is no charge on gains. If you happen to make a capital loss this can be used to offset future capital gains.

Yes, there are charges for foreign payments. Transactions will be processed using the exchange rate set by Mastercard

• Debit card payment in a foreign currency: 2.5% of the value charged in GBP
  
• Cash withdrawal in a foreign currency outside the UK: 2.5% of the value charged in GBP
  

See our tariff of charges for full details or the Fee Information Document for more information.

We will not charge you for cash withdrawals from any ATM in the UK. However, some ATM providers may charge for using their machines to withdraw cash. There is a charge for withdrawing cash from abroad, please see our tariff for details.

You can open a Triodos Innovative Finance ISA if you are resident in the UK for tax purposes and are over 18 years of age.

If the text is from a sender you know, or from a shortcode (five to eight digits long):

• Reply ‘STOP’. You shouldn’t be charged for this, and it will let the sender know you don’t want to receive their text messages.
• If you’re unhappy about receiving the text or continue to receive them after asking the sender to stop, you can complain to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) on 0303 123 1113 or online.

If the spoof text message (sometimes known as smishing) is from an unknown sender, or from an organisation you’re not familiar with:

• Do not reply or click on a link in the text. Responding confirms your number is active and could result in you receiving more messages or calls.
• Report the spam text to your network operator. Simply forward the text to 7726. An easy way to remember ‘7726’ is that they’re the numbers on your phone keypad that spell out the word ‘SPAM’. You may get an automated response thanking you for the report and giving you further instructions if needed, like forwarding on the number the spam text message was sent from. You won’t be charged for forwarding spam texts to 7726.
  

Screen scraping happens when you allow a third party to log into your computer while you are using it, so they see what you are doing and can copy the data on the screens you are viewing. This is a way for third parties to be able to get access to your payment data or account overview.

Triodos Bank is not in favour of this practice, as it potentially compromises the integrity of your own computer and your passwords.

We'll write to you one month before your bond matures, asking you where you’d like your funds to go. If you have internet banking you will be able to make your choice online and can decide to either reinvest or transfer your matured funds to another account.

If we don’t hear from you before your bond matures, we’ll open a variable rate savings account on your behalf and write to let you know. There will always be opportunities for you to reinvest your money with Triodos, and we hope you choose to do so.

If you'd like to write to us, you can do so freepost at:

Freepost TRIODOS BANK

Our freepost address is Royal Mail registered and simple to use - write it on your envelope exactly as shown above (no stamp required) and your letter will get to us free of charge by second class mail.

For first class mail, you can post in the normal way to:

Triodos Bank
Deanery Road
Bristol
BS1 5AS

As an online bank, we don't provide counter banking services, but we're always pleased to meet with our business customers - simply make an appointment with your relationship manager.

Our regional business banking offices can be found at:

Triodos Bank
20 Old Bailey
London
EC4M 7LN

Triodos Bank
50 Frederick Street
Edinburgh
EH2 1EX

If you receive a call from Triodos, we’ll be happy for you to question who we are and call us back on the number published on our website, just to make sure. If you can, call us back from a different phone, as an extra safety precaution. Fraudsters can clone numbers, so it may look like the number we use to call you.

We will never call you to ask you to transfer money or for your Digipass codes, and we will never ask you to download software onto your device. If someone calls pretending to be from Triodos, and they ask you to do these things, hang up immediately and report it to us on 0330 355 0355.

The Triodos Impact Investment Funds are sub-funds of Triodos SICAV I, a “Société d’Investissement à Capital Variable” established in Luxembourg. Triodos SICAV I has a Passport into the UK, enabling UK distribution. Triodos SICAV I, including its sub-funds, is governed by the law of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

Triodos Global Equities Impact Fund
Triodos Global Equities Impact Fund offers investors the possibility to invest in equities issued by larger listed companies worldwide delivering superior social and environmental performance within their sector as well as a strong financial performance.

Triodos Pioneer Impact Fund
Triodos Pioneer Impact Fund provides investors the opportunity to invest in equities issued by innovative and pioneering small and medium-sized listed companies worldwide that focus on the sustainable themes of climate protection, clean planet, healthy living, and or corporate social responsibility.

Yes.

We offer three impact investment funds - the Triodos Global Equities Impact Fund, the Triodos Pioneer Impact Fund and the Triodos Sterling Bond Impact Fund. All the Impact Funds are available in two different share classes, distribution and capitalisation.

The minimum initial investment per Impact Investment Fund is £1,000, and the minimum top up amount is £500 per fund.

The minimum holding amount is £500 per share class. This means that your initial investment must be at least £1,000 per impact investment fund and £500 per share class. In addition to this, you are not able to sell part of your holding and leave a positive balance of below £500, and you will either need to sell your entire holding in that share class or if applicable a smaller amount.

Cash cannot be paid in to the Triodos Personal Current Account at the moment. However we are in discussion with a number of providers to investigate if we can offer this service in the future as we understand from customer feedback that this is a service that some customers would like us to offer.

You can choose to have any income generated by your investment in Triodos Impact Investment Funds automatically reinvested for capital growth or paid out to your nominated bank account. Please note that income is variable and not guaranteed.

To have any income generated automatically reinvested you should purchase capitalisation units, where any income generated is retained within the fund and reinvested, increasing the value of the units.

To have any income generated paid out you should purchase distribution units,  where income generated by the underlying holdings is distributed as a payment to your nominated bank account.

You can switch part or all of your holding to between units at any time by completing a switching form below.

The Triodos Global Equities Impact and Pioneer Impact funds are quoted in sterling. When you purchase or sell, your sterling is converted into euros or back from euros into sterling. Your total return is therefore subject to the euro-sterling exchange rate.  Further currency risk arises as the funds may invest in euro, dollar and other currency denominated securities.

The Triodos Sterling Bond Impact Fund has a base currency of sterling and your total return is not subject to the euro-sterling exchange rate.

We can pay it on the first of each month into an account you choose when you apply, or we pay it annually each January and at the end when the bond matures.