Protecting Yourself from Identity Theft
Identity Theft is a serious threat against consumers. At Bank of Pontiac, we continuously monitor our security procedures to protect you and your accounts. Total security is only possible with your help. Here are steps you can take now to prevent identity theft and protect your finances.
- Do not give out personal information such as account numbers, your social security number(s), passwords, or pin #’s on the phone or over the Internet unless you have initiated the contact.
- Monitor all your bank statements. Check to see if there are any errors or unauthorized transactions. Call to report the transactions that are suspect. Important: If you suspect a transaction is fraudulent, you must contact the bank within 60 days after we sent the first statement on which the problem appeared.
- Report lost or stolen checks, ATM card or debit cards immediately. Properly store cancelled checks. Examine new checks and debit cards to make sure the mailing carrier has not been tampered with. Store them in a secure location.
- Destroy unused financial solicitations before discarding them and tear up other financial documents such as statements or receipts before putting them in the trash.
Be Aware of "Phishing"
There is a new scam occuring on the internet involving fraudulent web pages and e-mail messages. Phishing is a term coined by Internet hackers who use email lures to 'fish' passwords and financial data from the sea of Internet users. E-mail messages designed to look like they came from a merchant or financial institution are mailed to Internet users. The e-mails direct the recipient to update or provide information back to the company's web site by instructing the user to click on a URL embedded within the e-mail. The embedded URL links the user to a counterfeit web site designed to look like the company's legitimate web site. Passwords and other personal information are then solicited and collected by the web site and used by the scammer to defraud the user.
Please be advised that Bank of Pontiac will not send e-mail communications to you soliciting sensitive information (passwords, user id's, and account numbers, etc.). If you should ever receive an e-mail message requesting personal information and indicating the message originated from Bank of Pontiac, please do not respond to the e-mail. Instead, please contact the bank immediately and alert us of the suspicious e-mail communication.
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