Fraud & Identity Theft

Fraud Prevention Best Practices

Internet “phishing” scams are one of the fastest growing frauds today. Phishing scams may involve bogus email, fax, letter, pop-up message, or text messages that use legitimate materials such as a company’s real website graphics/logos to entice you into sharing personal financial information.

How to Protect Yourself:

  • Never respond to an unsolicited email, fax, letter, text, or pop-up message that is asking for immediate and detailed financial and personal information.
  • Don’t respond to a message that asks you to call a phone number or click on a link in order to update your account, access a refund, or obtain lottery winnings.
  • Never give anyone your Username, Password, or PIN numbers.
  • Don’t give anyone access to your computer or mobile device if you don’t already know them and trust them.
  • If a company sends you a dual-authentication or temporary code to access their website or mobile app, never share that with anyone.
  • For more good tips, you can visit government agency sites like the Federal Trade Commission.
  • Avoid fake check scams.

Identity Theft

Identity theft happens when someone steals your personal information and uses it without your permission. It’s a serious crime that can wreak long-term havoc with your finances, credit history, and reputation – and can take time, money, and patience to solve. Tools to help you understand, or report and recover from, identity theft are available from the Federal Trade Commission.

Please Note: These links are not ours, but rather owned and maintained by 3rd parties, and provided here as a courtesy only. We can’t control their content, so can’t be responsible for it, but believe them to be accurate as of our posting date.