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TELEPHONE SCAM INFORMATION
A new telephone scam has been
started. The caller states that they need your account number and other
personal information for various reasons, i.e. security monitoring or
draft authorization.
This is not a First State Bank call. DO NOT
give any personal
information.
Please contact us if you have received a phone call of
this nature.
If you did give your personal information please contact First State
Bank immediately.
Please remember that First State Bank WILL NOT request this type of
information via telephone or email.
Please call us at any of our locations if you have any questions
regarding this matter.
See below for tips on avoiding fraud.
Our Security Commitment
Privacy Policy:
First State Bank privacy policy for consumers
click here
Keeping your financial information secure is one of our most important
responsibilities.
Fraud Prevention Tips:
How First State Bank Protects You:
Keeping your financial and personal information secure and confidential
is one of our most important responsibilities. That’s why we operate
under a detailed information security policy.
We value your trust, and we understand that handling your financial
information with care is our most important responsibility. So, only
those who provide the products or services you might need are authorized
to have access to your financial information.
Our Security Policy:
We operate under an information security policy
designed to protect the security and confidentiality of your
information. The First State Bank Board of Directors has approved this
policy and program, and we keep the Board informed on the overall status
of our information security program. The information security program is
also subject to ongoing regulatory oversight and examination.
Our Code of Ethics:
We have a code of ethics for all employees that
requires confidential treatment of your information. Any employees with
access to information must complete privacy and information security
awareness training annually. First State Bank also maintains physical,
electronic, and procedural safeguards to protect against unauthorized
access to customer information.
Our Computer Security Plan:
Keeping your financial and personal information secure
and confidential is one of our most important responsibilities. Your
information remains secure because our computer systems are protected in
the following ways:
-
Computer anti-virus protection detects and prevents viruses from
entering our network systems.
-
Firewalls block unauthorized access by individuals or networks.
Firewalls are one way we protect our computer systems that interact with
the Internet.
-
Secure transmissions ensure information remains confidential. We use
encryption technology to transmit information between you and us. This
protects data in three key ways:
- Authentication ensures that you are communicating with us, and
prevents another computer from impersonating First State Bank.
- Encryption scrambles transferred data so it cannot be read by
unauthorized parties.
- Data integrity verifies that the information you send to us is not
altered during the transfer. The system detects if data was added or
deleted after you sent the message. If tampering has occurred, the
connection is dropped.
- Advances in security technology are constantly evaluated by our experts
to ensure that we provide the right protection for you.
- Secure email is provided through Online Banking, giving you peace of
mind that your communications with us are always private.
How You Can Protect Yourself:
Taking just a few easy precautions can help protect your financial and
personal information against identity theft. Education and awareness are
great first steps.
Because you can control the information you choose to release, you are
the single best person to protect your personal information. There are
some easy ways to do this, by keeping anything with any personal or
account information in a safe place, providing your information only to
trusted sources, and by reducing the amount of mail you receive with
your information on it.
It’s okay to be skeptical when providing your personal information. If
you can’t verify the legitimacy of the business or person that you may
be providing your information to, or if you don’t understand why a
certain piece of information is needed, you may want to think twice
about the transaction. Don’t be an Online Victim and Internet Fraud.
Click here for more
information
You don’t have to be an expert in computers to protect yourself on the
Internet from online fraud and identity theft.
If you haven’t already, install anti-spyware, anti-virus, and a personal
firewall on your computer. There are many of these products available
that will help you prevent criminals from gaining access to your
computer and stealing your personal information. A properly protected
computer will provide you with secure access to your financial
information and combat the efforts of criminals trying to gain access to
your activities.
Types of Online Fraud
The most common types of email fraud are phishing and spoofing, which
happen when a criminal sends phony email messages to steal personal and
financial information. Spyware is another common form of fraud.
Sometimes criminals may send you email that looks like it has come from
First State Bank. These phony emails ask you to go to a website that
also looks like First State Bank and provide your personal account
information. Some of these phony emails even caution that if you don’t
do this, your account may be suspended. But the website is also a fake,
and this is a fraud attempt.
This is the most common type of online fraud, and is called “phishing
and spoofing”. Criminals send these phony email messages or direct
someone to a fraudulent website for one goal, to steal personal or
financial information.
If you should ever receive an email that appears to be suspicious, do
not reply to it or click on the link it provides. Simply delete it. To
report a suspicious email that uses First State Bank you can forward it
to
customercare@firstclassbanking.com.
(If you have general questions about
your accounts, please click here
.)
Spyware and viruses are both malicious programs that are loaded onto
your computer without your knowledge. Whether the goal of these programs
is to capture and destroy information, to ruin the performance of your
computer, or to bombard you with advertising, you don’t want them.
Viruses spread by infecting computers and then replicating. Spyware
disguises itself as a legitimate application and embeds itself into your
computer, to monitor your activity and collect information.
Spyware and viruses are both serious threats to the security of your
computer.
Pop-ups are the advertisements that “pop-up” in a separate browser
window. When you click on some of these pop-ups, it’s possible that
you’re also downloading “spyware” or adware”.
Sometimes, criminals create pop-up ads that look like they come from a
respected financial institution and ask you to enter personal financial
information, but First State Bank and most other financial institutions
will never ask you to verify personal financial information in pop-ups.
Identity Theft
Identity theft occurs when a person’s identity is stolen for the purpose
of opening credit accounts, stealing money from existing accounts,
applying for loans, as well as several other things. Victims of identity
theft aren’t often aware that they’ve been targeted until they find
unknown charges on their bank or credit card statements, are called by a
collections agency or are denied credit.
What you should do if you have become a victim of identity theft:
Report the theft to the three major credit reporting agencies which are
Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion Corporation. You should request that
they place a fraud alert and a victim’s statement in your file, request a
free copy of your credit report to check whether any accounts were
opened without your permission, and request that the agencies remove
inquires and/or fraudulent accounts stemming from the theft.
Notify your bank and ask them to flag your account, contact you regarding
any unusual activity and take the following action in the event of such
activity; if checks were stolen, place stop payments on them, if bank
accounts were set up without your consent, close them, and if your ATM
card was stolen, issue a new card, account number, and PIN.
Notify the issuers of the credit cards you carry. If unauthorized
charges appear on your legitimate credit cards or if unauthorized cards
have been issued in your name you should; request replacements cards
with new account numbers, monitor credit card bills for new fraudulent
activity, and if found, report it immediately to the credit card issuers
and credit reporting agencies.
Check with any online accounts, merchants or payment services that you
use for any fraudulent activity against your accounts.
Contact your local police department to file a criminal report.
Contact the Social Security Administration’s Fraud Hotline to report the
unauthorized use of your personal identification information.
Notify the Department of Motor Vehicles of your identity theft. Check to
see whether an unauthorized license number has been issued in your name.
File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. Receive your free
copy of Take Charge: Fighting Back Against Identity Theft
at
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/
Document the names and phone numbers of everyone you speak to regarding
the incident. Follow up your phone calls with letters. Keep copies of
all conversations.
Additional ways to Protect Your Identity:
Check your credit report regularly.
Shred your confidential mail.
Keep account numbers, PIN's, credit and bank cards and checks in a
secure location.
Don’t select a PIN that has personal significance, such as birthday or
address.
Memorize your PIN and do not share your account numbers or PINs with
friends or family.
Always take your receipts with you from ATM or store.
Never give your confidential information to callers claiming they are
from your financial institution or to people unknown to you. First State
Bank will never initiate a call to ask you for personal or financial
information. However, if you call us, we will ask for account
verification so we can positively identity you.
Do not trust Caller ID. With today’s technology, it is easy for thieves
to fake Caller ID and make it look like the call is from a trusted
source.
Never click on a link to a website from within an email, even if it
appears to be from your financial institution. Rather, always go
directly to the website and logon.
Choose a Secure Password
Do NOT use words or phrases that have a personal significance.
Mix letter, number, and symbols and use specific case sensitivity. When
using alphanumeric combinations, along with case sensitivity, it’s
almost impossible to “Crack” a password.
A good way to do this is to use an acronym of a sentence or phrase that
you will remember.
Try to memorize the password and avoid writing it down to prevent
someone from finding it.
The longer the password, the more secure it is. Make sure the password
is longer than 6 to 8 characters. Fewer characters are easier for
“brute-force” programs used by hackers to calculate.
Don’t use the same password for all of your secure access accounts.
Keep your password a secret.
Important Numbers You’ll Need if You’ve Been a Victim of Identity Theft
Federal Trade Commission Identity Theft Clearinghouse – 877-438-4338
Social Security Administration Fraud Hotline – 800-269-0271
Experian – 888-397-3742
Equifax – 800-525-6285
TransUnion Corporation – 800-680-7289
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