Students have been warned that they could be targeted by scammers who are trying to steal their student loan payments.

The Student Loans Company (SLC) has said that at the moment fraudulent emails are being sent to students by fraudsters pretending to be reputable finance companies. The emails request personal details including bank details in a quest by the scammers to get access to bank accounts.

If students give the information that is requested in the emails, the fraudsters will be able to gain access to their bank accounts to steal their money. Students are a particular target for fraud at this particular time of the year because the scammers know that they are likely to be receiving large amounts of money in the form of student loan payments being paid into their bank accounts.

The Student Loan Company has said that they will never request account holders personal details by email and that you should be suspicious of any email claiming to be from them doing so.

The best way to stay safe, whoever you bank with whether you are a student or not, is that if you receive an email requesting personal information, is to speak to the bank directly by either telephoning them or visiting their website directly via your browser using your favourites or by typing in the web address. Never click a link to the bank that is contained in any email requesting information as it could take you to a spoof site that is posing as your bank to collect your private data.