Fighting Fraud

What to Watch Out For

Want to learn how to identify fraud? Here are some of the most common tactics to watch out for:

Identity Theft

When another uses your personal identifying information, such as SSN, Name, Date of Birth, etc., to commit fraud. This could result in a financial loss to the victim as well as the company or person who provided the service to the fraudster. This is why we take steps to ensure that we know who our customers are.

Protect Personal Information

Only provide your sensitive personal information to persons or companies that are reputable and you trust. We should not need to call and ask an existing customer for their PIN or Account Number as it is available in our secure internal systems. If you have doubts about the legitimacy of an information request, confirm the request is authentic with the business directly.

Phishing

Fraudsters use emails, cell phone texts, also known as SMShing, and fake websites, also known as spoofing, to try and fool you into revealing your sensitive personal information. The email or text may appear to be from a legitimate business and could reference “confirming” your account, identity, billing information etc. There is often a threat attached to these requests that your relationship may be terminated if you do not respond immediately. A spoofed website, another form of phishing, is designed to mirror the original legitimate site and encourage you to enter sensitive information that is captured by the fraudsters. These fraudsters use the “phished” information to commit identity theft.

Protect Yourself: If you believe an email or text is not legitimate, do not click on any links or respond. Contact the company directly to confirm that this communication originated from them. When visiting a website, ensure that the URL address bar displays the proper domain name.

Advance Fee: Nigerian Letters, Foreign Lotteries, Sweepstakes

All of these scams operate on the same premise, you will be contacted via email, phone, fax, or letter informing you that you have won money in a foreign country, can make a large amount of money by helping them move money out of another country, or won some fantastic sweepstake prize. Before you can ever access any of these imaginary windfalls you will be required to send money in some amount that will allow you to attain the prize, which will never arrive and your funds have already been sent. A foreign lottery may even send a bad check to deposit, with instructions to wire some percentage to cover customs taxes, but the check will be returned. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is, be cautious with your personal financial information.

General Tips

Below are some tips to help you detect and prevent fraud:

• Monitor your account transactions and statements. Take advantage of the anytime, anywhere access to your account that Online and Mobile Banking provide, as well as alerts to monitor your accounts.
• Be conscious of emails and texts, which can be used for phishing and malware distribution.
• Delete all SPAM, do not click on unknown links or download files from unknown sources.
• Shred all paper documents containing sensitive information before discarding.
• Check your credit report annually for evidence of identity theft. You can request a copy of your report once every twelve months from each of the major credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion
• Change your passwords frequently.

Below are some tips on protecting your Credit or Debit Cards:

• Never write your PIN number on your cards.
• Be conscious of your surroundings and protect your PIN input.
• Do not use the same PIN for multiple cards, and change your PIN frequently.
• Be cautious of using unusual ATMs or if you see exposed wires.
• Only keep the cards you commonly use in your wallet or purse, keep others in a secure location.
• Look for new or re-issued cards in the mail, if they do not arrive in a timely manner contact the issuing bank promptly. Sign and activate new cards immediately.
• Always enter a total on receipts, and mark through blank lines.
• Keep receipts to compare with your account statement.

Fraudulent Websites & Emails

Criminals and fraudsters use websites and email to appear to be something that they are not, in order to collect your sensitive information. This can occur via impersonation to get you to directly divulge the information, or by sending you to a malicious website to inject malware onto your computer.

• First and foremost, if you ever have a doubt, question, or something does not look right, call us at 1-833-4PRIMIS before proceeding.
• Fraudulent websites are designed to mirror the website which they are impersonating. By doing this they try to capture confidential information such as usernames, passwords, and more. Ensure that the web address in the URL bar of your browser has the proper domain.
• Fraudulent emails are also used to give the appearance of an official communication urging you to reply with confidential information, call a specific number, or instructing you to click on a link. This link could lead you to a malicious website that is waiting to install malware on your computer.
• Learn to spot fraudulent emails and websites by looking for common mistakes such as:
  • Awkward or weird greetings
  • Incorrect grammar or typos
  • Links that lead to a different location than the displayed wording
  • “Urgent communication for your security or updating information immediately”
  • Primis logo or company name incorrect, i.e. “Primus”