The most common form of fraud found in the banking industry is a result of social engineering: this is when a fraudster impersonates an institution to trick end users into sharing their account credentials, which are then later used for account takeover.
You should always be aware and suspicious of phone calls, emails, texts or any communication you receive from someone you don’t know. Particularly if they want your personal information or money.
Here are our recommendations to help keep your account safe:
- Only call our institution via the phone numbers available on our public website.
- Do not provide your online banking login credentials, one-time password, account number, or personal information by email, text or phone call. You should only use our published phone number to reach out to us to confirm that the request is legitimate.
- Never give out information to callers requesting information you received via text. We will never request this information or pressure you to reset your online banking login password. You should end the conversation with the scammer without supplying any personal information.
- Never click on links in unsolicited emails or texts. Phishing is when scammers send emails or text messages that appear to be from a reputable company and are not.
- Do not respond to texts, calls, or emails for one-time passcode authorizations that you did not request or validate the login.
- Never trust caller ID as caller ID may be modified to show your financial institution’s name.
- Do not give information over the phone if you receive a call stating that a transaction is canceled, even if the caller claims to be from our financial institution. Once again, you should contact us using a published phone number to inquire about the transaction.
- Never give an unsolicited caller remote access to your computer.