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United Southern Bank is concerned about you protecting your identity. Identity theft affects 750,000 new victims each year and costs consumers, merchants and financial institutions billions of dollars.
Thieves have been ruining good consumers’ credit for years by stealing credit cards or just the credit card number, stealing mail and by getting consumers to give out personal information through fraudulent means. Studies show that most identity theft crimes are carried out by stealing paper information and are perpetrated by someone you know.
Remember, United Southern Bank personnel will NEVER make an unsolicited call to you asking for your account number or other personal information. Nor will we send an email asking for personal information or passwords. We also discourage you from sending us personal information via unencrypted email.
PROTECT YOUR IDENTITY
Tips to Protect Your Identify
- Do not give out financial information such as checking and credit card numbers or your social security number, unless you know the person or organization.
- Never comply with phone requests for financial information.
- Report lost or stolen checks, credit and debit cards immediately.
- Notify your bank of suspicious phone inquiries such as those asking for account information.
- Commit ATM and other passwords to memory.
- Destroy pre-approved credit card offers or other financial information before you throw them out.
- Remove mail promptly from your mailbox and put outgoing mail into a secure, official Postal Service collection box.
- Limit the number of I.D. and credit cards you carry with you.
- Review your credit report each year. You can obtain a free credit report once a year from each of the credit reporting agencies online at
www.AnnualCreditReport.com.
- Secure personal information in your home, especially if you have roommates, employ outside help, or are having work done in your home.
- Shred any personal documents (receipts, credit card offers, insurance forms, physician statements) before you put them in the trash.
Identify Theft Warning Signs
- Fraudulent charges on your credit card statement.
- Credit card or financial institution statements don’t arrive.
- Bills arrive for goods or services you didn’t request.
- Suspicious inquiries on your credit report.
- Phone calls from creditors.
- Suddenly denied credit.
- Receipt of credit cards for which you did not apply.
Avoid Phishing Scams
- Never respond to an unsolicited email that asks for detailed financial information.
- Be suspicious of any email with urgent requests for personal financial information.
- Don’t use the links in an email to get to any web page if you suspect the message might not be authentic.
- Always ensure that you are using a secure website when submitting credit card or other sensitive information via your web browser.
- Regularly log into your online accounts and check your credit and debit card statements.
- Always report phishing attempts by forwarding the email to the following groups:
PROTECT YOUR PERSONAL
COMPUTER
- Install a firewall to prevent hackers from obtaining personal data from your hard drive.
- Install and update virus protection and spyware software. (Firewall/virus/spyware protection can be purchased at most places where computers are sold.)
- Password-protect files that contain sensitive data.
- Use a secure website when entering credit card information. A secure website will have an icon of a lock in the bottom strip of the web browser page and the URL address changes from “http” to https”.
- Don’t open emails from people you don’t know.
- Do not open suspicious attachments.
- Be creative when you select a password and commit it to memory. Create a phrase and use the first letter of each word of the phrase for your password. Change your passwords periodically.
- Before discarding your old computer, use a hard drive “wipe” or shredding program.
- Make sure your browser is up to date and security patches applied.
- Establish security rules for your family and make sure they are followed.
- Store back-ups in a secure place.
PROTECT YOUR MONEY
- Don’t fall for unsolicited lottery or sweepstakes “wins”.
- Don’t deposit a check from someone you don’t know and send money back. The check is most likely not good and will be debited from your account.
- Don’t fall for scams requesting you to send money in order to receive a larger amount.
- Don’t “help” someone facilitate money transfers (usually from a foreign country) through your account.
- If selling an item, don’t take accept a check for more than the selling amount and send the overage back.
- Protect your cash, credit cards and identification from pickpockets. Close your wallet and keep your purse shut and close to your body.
- Report lost or stolen credit cards immediately.
- Keep a list (in a secure place) of all your credit card and other financial account numbers along with the emergency numbers to call if lost or stolen.
- Keep your credit card statements, income tax return copies and other personal information in a locked filing cabinet or safe.
- Periodically inspect your check books for missing checks.
- Be aware of shoulder surfing when using your ATM card.
- Check ATM machines for skimming devices (an illegal attachment that reads your card number).
KNOW HOW OTHERS ARE PROTECTING
YOUR INFORMATION
- Find out how your CPA, attorney, financial planner or other service providers who have your social security number protect it. Do they lock the information and protect it from unauthorized employee access? How vulnerable is their computer system?
- Do third party service providers conduct background checks on their employees?
- Ask how your medical service providers protect your personal information.
UNITED SOUTHERN BANK PROTECTS
YOUR INFORMATION
- We train and test employees on privacy and protecting customers’ information.
- Employees are required to sign a privacy agreement when employed.
- Customer files are locked at night.
- We utilize a professional shredding company for discarded personal information.
- We have the ability to encrypt emails that contain sensitive information.
- We have a firewall from our network provider as well as our own in house firewall.
- We have an Intrusion Detection System that is monitored 24 hours a day for any kind of anomaly.
- In order to access our customer database, three levels of pass words are required.
- We employ an outside agency to test our information security by performing hack tests from both outside and inside our organization.
- Use multi-factor authentication for online banking.
WHAT TO DO IF YOU ARE A VICTIM
- File a report with the police and keep a copy for your records in case you need proof of the crime later.
- Contact your credit card company and your financial institution and close your accounts.
- Call the three major credit bureaus to tell them your identity has been stolen. Request that a fraud alert be placed on your file and that no new credit be granted without your approval.
- Equifax: 800-525-6285
- Experian: 888-397-3742
- Trans Union: 800-680-7289
- Call the Social Security Fraud Hotline: 800-269-0271
Social Security Administration
SSA Fraud Hotline
P.O. Box 17768
Baltimore, MD 21235
Email: oig.hotline@ssa.gov
- If your identity or personal information was stolen in the mail contact:
U.S. Postal Inspection Service
475 L’Enfant Plaza, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20260
1-800-372-8347
www.usps.gov/websites/depart/inspect
- Contact the Federal Trade Commission Theft hotline: 877-438-4338 or
www.consumer.gov/idtheft.
KEEP A RECORD OF YOUR ACTIONS
- Keep a file of documents related to the identity theft. You will want to include documents such as disputed bills, credit reports, police reports, and any correspondence.
- Maintain a record of your telephone conversations with the persons and agencies you contact for assistance. Be sure to record the date and time of the call, the name and title of the person you spoke with, and the things you discussed.
- Follow up all telephone conversations in writing and send these letters certified with return receipts requested; maintain copies of these written correspondences for your file.
- Maintain copies of any written correspondence you exchange related to the identity theft.
- Keep original documents for your file; only mail copies.
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