How to Guard Against Internet Thieves and Electronic Scams

From: http://www.vodium.com/goto/fdic/identitytheft.asp

Identity theft continues to be one of the fastest-growing crimes in the United States, and has ranked as one of the top consumer concerns for the past several years. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has produced a multimedia presentation to help consumers protect themselves from identity theft. The presentation provides information on steps consumers should take to secure their computer and protect themselves from identity theft, as well as actions consumers should take if they become a victim of identity theft.

Protect Yourself against Pharming

Pharming, also known as “domain spoofing,” is a cyber crime that intercepts Internet traffic and re-routes it to a fraudulent site.  Once there, the victim is aksed to enter personal information, just as with Phishing.  Help protect yourself from this type of cyber crime by reading the information we have provided you with on this page and on the Protect Your Identity page. 

Your role in protecting personal information

• Do not respond to unsolicited e-mails from companies with which you do business requesting that you re-validate personal information or that link to websites requesting that you re-validate personal information. Should you receive such an e-mail, contact the company directly via phone or by typing in their home URL directly to determine the validity of the e-mail. Oceanside Bank will never send you an e-mail asking for your passwords, credit card numbers or other sensitive information. If you believe someone is trying to commit fraud by pretending to be Oceanside Bank, please contact Ann Van Voorst at 904-247-9494 immediately.
• If e-mails or websites contain typographical or grammatical errors, review them carefully as these are often signs of fraud attempts to compromise your information.
• Do not click on “links” you receive in an e-mail message. Open your browser and enter the address directly.
• Do not share your ID or password with anyone.
• Change your password regularly.
• Only provide your personal or account information online to sites you trust and where you initiated the contact.
• Remember to sign off the website once you have submitted an application or completed a secure online session.
• When your computer is not in use, shut it down or disconnect it from the Internet.
• Only provide your ID and password when your browser indicates an encrypted connection. An encrypted connection is normally indicated by an “https://” in your browser's address bar in front of the address of the page you are visiting.
• If you think you may have provided information to a fraud perpetrator, change your password immediately and monitor your account activity frequently.
• Install current versions of virus detection software, firewalls and spyware scanning tools to reduce computer infections. Regularly update these tools to combat new threats.
• Automatic upgrades. We recommend that you purchase a program that automatically upgrades your virus protection on a recurring basis. If you currently do not have this automatic upgrade feature, make sure you update your virus detection program weekly and when you hear of a new virus.
• Attachments: We advise not to open attachments or diskettes unless you are certain that you can trust the source. Learn how to manually screen diskettes and attachments if your anti-virus software does not automatically screen for viruses.