Fraud Awareness

Recommendations to Reduce your Risk

Awareness is key in combating fraud. Use these helpful tips to protect yourself:

• Make sure you initiate the contact, and the institution verifies your identity with questions only you would know.
• To verify whether a call is legitimate, call your bank or visit its website, using phone numbers or internet addresses from your bank statement or account documentation. Do not call back a number provided over the phone or click on a link in an email.
• Most communications will include something that will concern or excite the victim.
• If you have been the victim of a scam, file a complaint with local law enforcement.
• Notify your financial institution.

As with all possible fraudulent situations, you are encouraged to take appropriate measures if a scam is suspected.

Cybersecurity Best Practices

• For Individuals and Families
• For Businesses and Nonprofits

Keep Your Credit and Debit Cards Safe

Here are a few tips to minimize the risk of fraud.

Shopping in Person

• Carry your cards separately from your wallet to minimize losses if your wallet or purse is stolen. Only bring the cards you plan on using and leave the rest at home. During the transaction, keep your eye on your card.
• Make sure you get your card back and put it away before you leave the counter. Save your receipts!
• Check your accounts online often and reconcile your receipts to the transactions.

Shopping Online

• Make sure your PC/device is working properly and is updated with the most current anti-virus, firewall, and anti-malware software.
• Before entering your financial information on a site, double-check the site's security. Make sure you are on a secure form, that there is an "s" at the end of "http" in the URL, and check to see if the form is secured by a company like VeriSign or Go Daddy.
• Don't put confidential information in an unsecured email, even if it's from a website you do business with.
• Do not use public wireless hot spots or Wi-Fi to shop online! Don't use your debit card for any online purchases. If you're the victim of fraud with a debit card, the money in your bank account can be drained immediately (you may have to wait until the fraud investigation is complete before your bank funds are returned to you).
• Before making an online purchase from a company you're not familiar with, do some research. What's being said about the company? Check with the Better Business Bureau in the area where the company is located. Is the company getting complaints?

General Tips

• Keep a record of your credit card account numbers, expiration dates, security codes and phone numbers and store in a secure place (NOT on your mobile device!). If your home printer is also a copier, consider putting all of your cards on it, photocopying both sides, and storing it in a secure place.
• Set up online alerts for your card accounts. By setting alerts for any transaction more than $0 (or $1 if it won't accept a zero), you'll get an alert for all transactions.
• Report any questionable transactions to your financial institution.
• Notify your credit card company if you plan to travel or if your address changes. Your transactions may be blocked in an effort to protect your account from fraud.
• Call your credit card company immediately if your card is lost or stolen.

FDIC Scams

Protect Yourself Against FDIC Imposters

The FDIC does not send correspondence asking for money or demanding your personal information, and the FDIC will never threaten you. Have you been contacted by the FDIC lately? Before responding, learn more about the latest FDIC imposter scams.

Email Claiming to be From the FDIC

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has received numerous reports of a fraudulent email that has the appearance of being sent from the FDIC.

The subject line of the email states: “check your Bank Deposit Insurance Coverage.” The email tells recipients: "You have received this message because you are a holder of a FDIC-insured bank account. Recently FDIC has officially named the bank you have opened your account with as a failed bank, thus, taking control of its assets.”

The email then asks recipients to “visit the official FDIC website and perform the following steps to check your Deposit Insurance Coverage” (a fraudulent link is provided). It then instructs recipients to “download and open your personal FDIC Insurance File to check your Deposit Insurance Coverage.”

This email and associated website are fraudulent. Recipients should consider the intent of this email as an attempt to collect personal or confidential information, some of which may be used to gain unauthorized access to online banking services or to conduct identity theft.

The FDIC does not issue unsolicited emails to consumers. Financial institutions and consumers should NOT follow the link in the fraudulent email.

Telephone Debit Scam

The bank continues to receive reports of a telephone scam involving fraudsters attempting to obtain personal information from cardholders. 

Cardholders have received computer-generated calls claiming to be from their financial institution. The calls claim their accounts have been frozen and then direct the cardholder to call a toll-free number to leave their debit card information in order to reactivate any cards. The toll-free number includes a recorded message that asks the customer to key their account number, card expiration date, and PIN.