Stay secure and avoid scams
At Melanite Mortgages we take the financial security of our customers seriously. We’re committed to keeping your data and account safe from fraud.
We work hard to protect our systems and maintain strong security measures. We also routinely monitor account activity to spot any unusual or potentially fraudulent transactions. Our colleagues are trained to recognise anything suspicious in their day-to-day work, helping to keep you and your account protected.
On this page, you’ll find helpful information on how to stay safe, including tips on spotting and avoiding financial scams.
If you ever have concerns about the security of your account, please call us immediately we’re here to help and will always do our best to support you.
How we’ll contact you
We typically contact our customers by phone, text message, interactive text/voice message, and letter. We may also occasionally send emails to landlords who have two or more buy-to-let mortgages with us.
If you’ve registered for Self-Serve and choose to send us a secure message, we’ll reply the same way. You’ll need to be signed in to Self-Serve to send secure messages, or read our responses.
If you’re ever unsure about a recent message or call regarding your account, we’ve included helpful information below to help you check that it’s really from us.
If we call you, we’ll always introduce ourselves and start the call by confirming your identity. This means we’ll ask you a few security questions based on your account details. We do this to make sure we’re speaking to the right person before discussing anything confidential.
If you’re ever unsure whether a call is genuinely from us, you can hang up and call us back using our official contact details to check.
When we need to contact you quickly about something important about your account, we may use SMS messages, interactive text or voice messages.
Interactive text messages allow you to respond directly to us, so you don’t always need to call and wait to speak to an agent, and you can reply at a time that suits you.
If we send you an interactive message, we’ll first ask you to confirm your identity by replying with your date of birth. Once this has been verified, we’ll send you further messages to explain why we’ve contacted you. You may also be asked to select options by replying or using your phone keypad.
For your security, the only personal detail we’ll ever ask you for in an interactive message is your date of birth. We’ll never ask you for any other personal information.
We’ll never ask you for debit card details or any other financial information in an interactive message.
If you’re ever unsure if a message you’ve received is genuinely from us, please get in touch, we’ll be happy to confirm for you.
We use letters to provide information about your account, let you know about any updates or changes, confirm decisions we’ve made, or explain any actions needed following a phone call. Some letters, may ask you to contact us.
We may send letters to all correspondence addresses registered on your account, so it’s important to keep your correspondence address or other contact details up to date.
If you’re unsure whether a letter is genuinely from us please call us and we’ll be happy verify it.
Online scams are becoming more complex, so be cautious of any unsolicited emails you receive.
We don’t routinely correspond with customers via email. However, landlords with two or more buy-to-let mortgages with us, may occasionally receive emails from our specialist team.
You can use Self-Serve to send us a secure online message anytime. It’s quick, easy, and works a lot like email. There’s more information about how to do this below.
If you’re ever unsure that a message you’ve received is genuinely from us, please call us and we’ll be happy to verify it.
If you send us a secure message in Self-Serve, we’ll respond by sending you a secure message in return. You’ll need to be signed in to Self-Serve to send secure messages and read our responses.
When you sign in to Self-Serve, you’ll be notified of any new secure messages, by a small red circle displayed on the mail icon above the Contact us button at the top of the screen.
Find out more about using Self-Serve here.
If you’re ever unsure that a message you’ve received is genuinely from us, please call us and we’ll be happy to verify it.
Using Self-Serve – our online system
Self-Serve is available 24/7 and allows you to manage your mortgage whenever it suits you, without needing to call or write to us. If you haven’t registered yet, now is a great time to do so. You can find more information on our Using Self-Serve page.
We’re planning to make some changes to how customers register and sign in to Self-Serve
Before these changes take effect, we’ll need to have a valid email address recorded for you. If we don’t have your email address on file, you won’t be able to sign in without first calling us to provide one.
A unique email address is required for each customer registration. Joint account holders must register using separate email addresses.
Although these changes won’t happen for some time, when you sign in to Self-Serve, please check that your email address is up to date.
How to add or update your email address in Self-Serve
You can easily provide your email address in Self-Serve. Simply sign in, click on your username at the top of the screen and select ‘Change Contact Details’
Once you’ve created your Self-Serve account, it’s important to keep your login details safe and secure. You’ll need your username and password each time you sign in. You must treat your username and password as confidential and not disclose them to anyone else. For added security, after you’ve entering your password, we’ll send a one-time passcode (OTP) to your mobile phone. You must enter this passcode before you can access your account. If we don’t have your mobile phone number, you’ll need to call us to obtain the OTP. Never give the OTP to anyone else.
If you believe any of your security details have been disclosed to someone else, or if someone has tried or might try to access your account, please call us as soon as possible.
To protect your account you’ll automatically be signed out of Self-Serve after ten minutes of inactivity.
Beware of financial scams
Security is more important than ever as customers increasingly interact with companies online. Financial scams are sadly more commonplace, with fraudsters constantly developing new ways to exploit security weaknesses and trick consumers for financial gain.
You can take action to help ensure that you don’t become a victim and stay protected online.
We take the security of your information seriously and are committed to protecting your personal data and accounts. It’s also important that you remain vigilant and take steps to protect yourself from fraud and scams.
By understanding common scam tactics and following good security practices, you can help reduce the risk of becoming a victim of financial crime.
If you receive a message that appears to be from us and have concerns that it may not be genuine, please don’t reply, click on any links, or share any personal information.
Instead, contact us as soon as possible using our usual contact details. We can then verify whether the message is genuine and advise you on any further steps that may be needed.
Fraudsters often impersonate trusted individuals and organisations, such as police, banks and mortgage lenders. They may contact you by phone, emails, text message or social media in an attempt to gain your trust and manipulate you. These scams are commonly known as phishing.
Their aim is to trick you into sharing confidential information, such as passwords, one-time passcodes, account details or other personal data. They may also try to persuade you to make a payment to an account controlled by the fraudster.
You may receive a suspicious message, don’t click any links or forward it to friends and family. Instead, delete it and report it where appropriate.
Although these messages can appear harmless, particularly if they contain humorous or emotional content, some are used by fraudsters to collect email addresses for future spam or phishing campaigns.
Be cautious of communications that:
- Request passwords, one-time passcodes or other confidential information.
- Create a sense of panic or pressure you to act quickly.
- Ask for urgent action or payment.
- Contain unexpected messages about account problems or security issues.
- Include suspicious links or attachments.
- Include poor spelling, grammar or unusual email addresses.
If in doubt, don’t respond. Contact the organisation directly using trusted contact details to verify whether the communication is genuine.
Protecting your devices
- There are various ways to protect your computer and other devices, which can help prevent viruses or other forms of malware from being installed.
- Install the latest operating system updates on your computer or mobile phone.
- Install updates to your computer operating system and turn on automatic update for your browser.
- Install the latest anti-virus software on your computer. By doing this you’ll be securing the software from viruses and fixing known software bugs.
- Be suspicious of any software you’re asked to download, especially if you’re not sure of its origins.
- Be aware of unexpected attachments on emails, or emails from individuals you do not recognise asking you to open an attachment.
We hope this information is useful for you.
Please note, this page contains links to external websites. We are not responsible for the content of external websites.