- Santander’s new fraud prevention campaign features Ant and Dec as fictional banking CEOs from the ‘Bank of Antandec’, and aims to deliver crucial fraud-prevention messaging in an engaging and memorable way
- The campaign responds to the widespread view that people believe they won’t fall victim to a scam
- The campaign will run across TV, Video on Demand, radio and social media between 15 October and 4 December
In response to a year-on-year increase in APP fraud since 2019 recorded by Santander, with victim numbers up by over 40% driven by impersonation and purchase scams, Santander’s latest advertising campaign focuses on protecting yourself from fraud and scams. Reinforcing the national industry fraud prevention campaign ‘Take Five’, the messaging concentrates on encouraging people to stop and think before handing over their money or personal details.
The campaign has been developed to grab attention and resonate with audiences. ‘Stop! Scammer Time’ takes a visually humorous look at how to protect yourself from scams. It introduces customers to the new concept that the ‘Bank of Antandec’ CEOs have come up with: Fraud Detecting Scammer Pants, which warn customers each time someone attempts to scam them, by inflating, lighting up and playing music. Meanwhile Santander takes scams seriously and reminds people to stop and think before handing over money or personal details.
Dan Sherwood, Director of Marketing, Santander UK said, “We know how ruthless these criminals are and the impact they can have on their victims, and unfortunately the number of people falling victim to scams is going up, not down. We’re determined to do what we can to protect people and so we’ve decided to try something different – approaching the topic from a different angle, using the light-hearted nature of the Bank of Antandec to try and force our way into people’s consciousness.
"If we can get people to hear those words ‘Scammertime’ and pause when they’re about to part with money or personal details, then hopefully we can help thwart more of these criminals and stop the harm caused to innocent victims.”
The bank invests heavily in its fraud and scam prevention. It is a signatory of the voluntary Contingent Reimbursement Model (CRM) and is part of a number of industry initiatives, such as the ‘Take Five’ campaign and 159 Stop Scams.
The campaign, which will be live between 15 October and 4 December, will run across TV, Video on Demand, radio and social media.
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The information contained in our press releases is intended solely for journalists and should not be used by consumers to make financial decisions.
Notes to Editors:
1 – UK Finance Annual Fraud Report 2022
Santander UK is a financial services provider in the UK that offers a wide range of personal and commercial financial products and services. At 30 June 2022, the bank had around 18,000 employees and serves around 14 million active customers, via a nationwide branch network, telephone, mobile and online banking. Santander UK is subject to the full supervision of the FCA and the PRA in the UK. Santander UK plc customers’ eligible deposits are protected by the FSCS in the UK.
Banco Santander (SAN SM, STD US, BNC LN) is a leading commercial bank, founded in 1857 and headquartered in Spain. It has a meaningful presence in 10 core markets in the Europe, North America and South America regions, and is one of the largest banks in the world by market capitalization. Santander aims to be the best open financial services platform providing services to individuals, SMEs, corporates, financial institutions and governments. The bank’s purpose is to help people and businesses prosper in a simple, personal and fair way. Santander is building a more responsible bank and has made a number of commitments to support this objective, including raising over €120 billion in green financing between 2019 and 2025, as well as financially empowering more than 10 million people over the same period. At the end of the first half of 2022, Banco Santander had €1.2 trillion in total funds, 157 million customers, of which 26 million are loyal and 50 million are digital, 9,200 branches and 200,000 employees.