December 8, 2021
The Christmas season should be filled with spirit and cheer, and we know fraud is the last thing anyone wants to worry about during the holidays! But it’s important to know that fraudsters are using the holiday season as an opportunity for increased schemes and criminal activity. Cyber criminals use many different types of attacks to access your personal information and assets and potentially even steal your identity. During the holiday shopping season, it’s common to see an increase in online shopping, social media use and gift card and charity scams, so we want you to stay alert and safe from fraud. Protect yourself and your accounts with these steps:- Verify the authenticity of websites before providing your credit or debit card information. Your card and data can be compromised if you are not shopping on a secure website.
- Hover over and review any links in an eMail to confirm they are legitimate before clicking on them.
- When answering calls, be cautious of disclosing any personal or sensitive information. When in doubt, hang up and call your financial institution directly.
- As always, ensure your computers, online browsers and mobile devices are updated with the latest versions of protection software.
- Sign up for security alerts to notify you of potential suspicious activity on your accounts.
- Use a two-step verification for all your financial accounts that requires a unique security code each time you access your accounts.
- Your bank will never text you asking you to sign in or offer up your personal information.
- Your bank will never eMail you asking you to provide your personal information.
- Your bank will never call you to confirm your account number, or any other personal information.