Financial Fraud Attempts Growing
Recently T-Mobile announced it experienced another data breach, but there have been 54 more published high-severity data breaches to date in 2021 alone!1 High-severity breaches include sensitive data such as social security numbers and passwords. Plus, there have been hundreds of more medium-to-low severity breaches this year too. With so many of these instances, it is essential to review your statements and monitor your accounts regularly.
At the Bank, we’ve seen an uptick in the number of attempts by fraudsters to gain access to client accounts. They use the information found on the dark web from the hundreds of data breaches to impersonate the customer on the phone. (This is why we go to such lengths to accurately identify you when you call into our Customer Care Team.) Or with that info, fraudsters can sometimes guess the client’s ID and password for online banking, which they will then use to transfer funds or send payments to fake businesses.
How can you best protect yourself from these scenarios?
- Check your statements routinely and call the Bank if you see any irregularities.
- Use long passwords with at least ten characters and a mix of alphanumeric characters (A, b, 1, 9) using upper and lower case and symbols (@, $, %, *).
- Never use the same passwords on multiple sites.
- Speak to a banker to set up a security challenge pass-phrase that must be shared before making any changes to account(s).
- Never use your mother’s maiden name or other easily obtained information for passwords or security phrases. These can be found on genealogy sites or learned from your social media.
- Update the Bank with your current contact info, particularly your cell phone number. This helps us contact you faster if we notice something odd with your account.
- Those fun quizzes on social media about “have you ever” or trivia contests – don’t do it. Those are often collection points for hackers to gain extra info about you.
Other tips and resources for protecting against financial fraud are available here.
Fraud Protection Tips
If you ever notice something odd or feel your account may have been compromised, please always contact the Bank immediately.
Ashland: 573-657-0849 | Columbia: 573-447-1771 | Fulton: 573-642-3322 | Mokane: 573-676-5711
Or Reach Any Locations Using: 800-446-2265
1 Mastercard’s Breach Catalog