Fed Board of Governors Provides Tips for Secure Checking Accounts
Consumers can help safeguard their checking accounts by taking a few precautions, including regularly reviewing bank statements and not supplying account information carelessly. A new publication from the Federal Reserve Board includes these tips and more.
Five basic precautions accountholders can take
The publication contains five steps that can help protect checking accounts from unauthorized activity. The steps are:
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Don't give account numbers or routing information to unknown individuals. Consumers should give this information only to companies they are familiar with and only if they have initiated the transaction.
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Review monthly statements. Make sure that all the checks, debits, automatic payments, and other withdrawals are authorized.
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Notify the bank about any problems as soon as possible. The sooner a bank is made aware of a problem, the sooner it can be resolved.
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If the money is not in a checking account, don't spend it. The digital environment means that the time between writing a check and its deduction from a checking account has shrunk, sometimes dramatically.
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Know the rights afforded by consumer protection laws. The Electronic Fund Transfer Act gives consumers certain rights, and awareness of these rights is important if there is a problem with electronic debits or electronic fund transfers.
What is Phishing?
Phishing is one of the latest cons used by high-tech criminals to facilitate one of America's leading forms of fraud -- identity theft. Basically, the scam uses spam (unsolicited e-mail) to bait consumers into disclosing sensitive personal information -- such as social security numbers, account and routing numbers, credit card numbers, personal identification numbers, passwords, and other private data.
According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the unsolicited e-mails give the appearance of being from legitimate businesses. In fact, fraudsters usually pick a business that the potential victim actually does business with, such as a financial institution, credit card company, or insurance company. The fraudsters tell the e-mail recipients they need to "update" or "validate" their billing information to keep their accounts active. To help set the hook, they even direct their potential victims to a web site that imitates the look of the legitimate web site -- with logos, colors, and designs to match. Unwittingly, consumers then submit their information to the impostor, who then uses the personal data to commit identity theft.
To avoid getting reeled into one of these scams, the FTC offers the following guidance:
- If you get an e-mail that warns you with little or no notice -- that an account of yours will be shut down or interest suspended unless you reconfirm your billing information, do not reply or click on the link in the e-mail. Instead, contact the legitimate company cited in the e-mail using a telephone number or web address you know to be genuine.
- Avoiding e-mailing personal and/or financial information.
- Look for the "lock" icon on the browser's status bar before submitting financial information through any web site. It signals that your information is secure during transmission.
- Review credit card and account statements as soon as you receive them to determine whether there are unauthorized charges. If your statement is late by more than a couple of days, call your Credit Card Company or financial institution to confirm your billing address and account balances.
- Report suspicious activity to the FTC -- send the actual spam e-mail 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.ftc.gov/idtheft to learn how to minimize your risk of damage from identity theft. To help fight fraud, the FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel -- a secure, on-line database available to hundreds of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad.
- Visit www.ftc.gov/spam for other ways to prevent and avoid e-mail scams and to learn how to deal with deceptive spam.
As your financial institution, we want to help you combat identity theft. One of the best ways to fight fraud is to educate yourself and be aware of a possible scam before it happens to you. Be cautious when providing information, and learn the steps you can take to help protect your sensitive, personal information in an attempt to stay ahead of these criminals.
To file a complaint or get free information on consumer issues, visit www.ftc.gov or call toll free to 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357) or TTY: 1-866-653-4261.
For Special Alerts from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), please go to www.fdic.gov/news/news/SpecialAlert/2004/index.html.
Fraud Alert
Some consumers are receiving recorded phone calls claiming their bank accounts have been frozen. The call then asks the consumer to put in their debit card and PIN number in order to reactivate their account. This is a scam and you should never give your account information to an unknown source.
