How to recognise fake bank websites

Viva Wallet
Viva Wallet Blog
Published in
3 min readJan 19, 2022

At Viva Wallet, your safety is always our top priority and therefore, we feel obliged to instruct you on the new types of online fraud currently used by scammers. We would like you to carefully go through the instructions below, in order to protect yourself from cybercriminals who may try to steal your data.

Some fraudulent websites may use links that may closely resemble our own, https://www.vivawallet.com/. Those websites are designed in such a way to deceive you and make you divulge your financial and personal information.

Fraudsters may approach you via targeted advertising (Google Search, Facebook and Instagram, e-mail or SMS, posing as Viva Wallet. These messages contain links that are either completely different from the correct domain (e.g., bitly.com/xxxxx), or look like the correct domain (e.g., vivavvallet — two ‘v’s for “wallet” instead of ‘w’).

Via Targeted Advertising

Before you click on any Google Ad, you must carefully check the following: Is this the verified Viva Wallet website or is it a link closely resembling that?

The verified Viva Wallet URLs are:

If the URL is neither of the above, DO NOT click on it or give any additional info, such as username/password, banking card details (card number, expiry date, CVV, PIN), One-Time Passwords (OTPs) or other personal information.

Via SMS/Email

Often using language that transmits a sense of urgency (e.g., ‘’your account is locked’’, ‘’your code is expiring’’, ‘’you made a transaction worth XXX€, click here to cancel’’), they ask you to click on a link, that may lead to a website closely resembling our own.

If you think an e-mail is suspicious, do not reply and do not click on any links it may contain. Instead, type in the address yourself. In some cases, you will be led to a seemingly irrelevant website, where you will find pop up ads that will then lead you to a fraudulent website closely resembling our own.

For transaction security purposes, we inform you that Viva Wallet will never ask you, via any means (by phone call, e-mail, or chat) and under no circumstances to:

  • Disclose your Viva Wallet account personal passwords
  • Make a transaction through your Viva Wallet Account

Viva Wallet recommends that you always check the authenticity of any website where you register personal information. This can be verified in the browser address bar through the lock pad security icon, while the website address starts with ‘’https’’ which certifies the protection of your personal data in the transmission.

If you are contacted by email or telephone to provide such information you should consider the request suspicious and contact us via Live chat.

Finally, in addition to everything mentioned above, you should also follow the General Protection Measures below, that will help you keep your data and personal information safe.

General Protection Measures

As always:

  • Do not use shared and untrusted devices to enter your credentials and sensitive data.
  • Maintain an antivirus software and regularly scan your device with it to ensure there is no malware installed that can capture and steal sensitive data from your device.
  • Do not install applications from unofficial sources, i.e., outside your device vendor’s application store/marketplace (e.g. Apple’s “App Store”, “Google Play”).
  • Review carefully and do not enable newly installed mobile apps to access your web browsing habits and your messages (SMS, instant messaging, etc.).
  • Do not use the same password for all websites and use a password manager to help you generate and store strong passwords for sites — a stolen password from one site can be used to login and perform fraudulent activities to social media sites, banking portals or similar services that provide access to your personal or financial data.
  • Use https://haveibeenpwned.com/ to check if your mobile number or email has been compromised and proceed to change your password to the compromised sites, as well as sites & services where the same password may have been used.

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Viva Wallet
Viva Wallet Blog

Viva Wallet is a European Fintech disruptor on a mission to change how businesses pay and get paid. www.vivawallet.com