Is a bank text asking me to approve a new payee a scam?
It could be. Scammers send fake bank texts to trick you into approving a payee they control — your bank will never rush this decision.
Last reviewed: 1 August 2026
Explanation
Authorised push payment fraud often begins with a text that looks exactly like a genuine bank alert, complete with a matching sender name. The message warns that an unfamiliar payee is awaiting your approval and gives you a short window to tap 'approve' or 'decline'. If you tap approve, money moves directly to the criminal. Real banks do send new-payee notifications, but they never threaten to block your account if you delay, and they never follow up with a phone call asking you to confirm over the phone. The key question is: did you initiate this payee yourself? If you did not, decline and call your bank on the number printed on your card.
This scam often runs in stages. The text primes you, then a caller claiming to be from the fraud team walks you through 'securing' the account — which in practice means approving the payee or reading out codes. Because the criminal controls both the message and the call, everything appears consistent, and the caller can sound calm, professional, and well-informed from breach data.
Banks build friction into new-payee approval precisely because it moves real money. Any message that pushes you to rush that step is working against your interests. Take the time the process is designed to give you: close the message, open your banking app directly, and check whether any genuine approval is actually pending.
Common red flags
- Text arrives with no prior transaction you initiated
- Urgency — 'approve within 10 minutes or account will be restricted'
- A phone call follows the text, pressuring you to confirm
- Sender ID matches your bank but the link goes to an unfamiliar domain
- Payee name looks vaguely like a known company
What to do now
- Do not approve any payee you did not set up yourself
- Hang up any follow-up call and dial your bank using the number on the card
- Report the text to your bank's fraud team and delete it
- If you approved by mistake, call your bank immediately to request a recall
Frequently asked questions
Can my bank send me a genuine new-payee notification?
Yes, but a genuine one will never pressure you to approve quickly or be followed by a call asking for your PIN or password. When in doubt, log in directly through the official app.
I approved the payee but no money has left yet — what should I do?
Call your bank straight away and tell them exactly what happened. They can remove the payee, block pending payments, and add monitoring. Acting before any transfer completes is the best window for stopping loss entirely.