Security & Fraud

FDIC Customer's Guide to Cybersecurity

• Do not give out financial information such as checking and credit card numbers, or your Social Security number, unless you know the person or organization.
• Report lost or stolen checks immediately. Your bank will block payment on them.
• Notify your banker of suspicious phone inquiries such as those asking for account information to “verify a statement” or “award a prize.”
• Closely guard your ATM Personal Identification Number and ATM receipts.
• Shred any financial solicitations and bank statements before disposing of them.
• Put outgoing mail into a secure, official Postal Service collection box.
• If regular bills fail to reach you, call the company to find out why.
• If your bills include questionable items, don’t ignore them. Instead, investigate immediately to head off any possible fraud.
• Periodically contact the major credit reporting companies to review your file and make certain the information is correct. (See related article on the FACT Act to learn about obtaining free reports.)

FACT Act Helps to Fight Identity Theft

Free credit report, other provisions help consumers

• Credit reporting agencies must stop reporting allegedly fraudulent account information when a consumer establishes that he or she has been the victim of identity theft;
• Creditors or businesses must provide copies of business records or fraudulent accounts or trans actions related to them. This information can assist victims in proving that they are, in fact, victims.
• Consumers will be allowed to report accounts affected by identity theft directly to creditors—in addition to credit reporting agencies—to prevent the spread of erroneous information.

How to Obtain a Free Credit Report

Check Fraud

• Guard your checkbook and extra (new) checks.
• Never give your account and routing numbers to people you do not know, especially to anyone over the telephone.
• Never use your deposit slip for "scrap" paper or notes and then give it to someone. Guard your deposit slips.
• Properly store or dispose of canceled checks.
• If your checkbook is lost or stolen, immediately inform us.
• When traveling for a period of time, it is wise to leave your checkbook at home, locked away, and purchase traveler's checks.
• Always write checks using ink pens or typewriters - never pencil.
• Write the payee name, and the dollar amount in both numbers and letters, as far to the left in the allotted space as possible and draw a line through the unused space to the right of the letters and numbers to prevent additions.
• Balance or reconcile your checkbook register with your monthly bank statements.
• When writing the payee name on the "Pay to the Order of" line, make sure the name is spelled out so it cannot be altered (e.g. L.S.U. could be changed to L.S.Underwood.

How Not to Get Hooked by a 'Phishing' Scam

• If you get an email or pop-up message that asks for personal or financial information, do not reply or click on the link in the message. Legitimate companies don't ask for this information via email. If you are concerned about your account, contact the organization in the email using a telephone number you know to be genuine, or open a new Internet browser session and type in the company's correct Web address. In any case, don't cut and paste the link in the message.
• Don't email personal or financial information. Email is not a secure method of transmitting personal information. If you initiate a transaction and want to provide your personal or financial information through an organization's Web site, look for indicators that the site is secure, like a lock icon on the browser's status bar or a URL for a website that begins "https:" (the "s" stands for "secure"). Unfortunately, no indicator is foolproof; some phishers have forged security icons.
• Review credit card and bank account statements as soon as you receive them to determine whether there are any unauthorized charges. If your statement is late by more than a couple of days, call your credit card company or bank to confirm your billing address and account balances.
• Use anti-virus software and keep it up to date. Some phishing emails contain software that can harm your computer or track your activities on the Internet without your knowledge. Anti-virus software and a firewall can protect you from inadvertently accepting such unwanted files. Anti-virus software scans incoming communications for troublesome files. Look for anti-virus software that recognizes current viruses as well as older ones; that can effectively reverse the damage; and that updates automatically.

• Be cautious about opening any attachment or downloading any files from emails you receive, regardless of who sent them.
• Report suspicious activity to the FTC. If you get spam that is phishing for information, forward it to spam@uce.gov. If you believe you've been scammed, file your complaint at www.ftc.gov, and then visit the FTC's Identity Theft Web site at www.consumer.gov/idtheft to learn how to minimize your risk of damage from ID theft. Visit www.ftc.gov/spam to learn other ways to avoid email scams and deal with deceptive spam.

Security at the ATM