The best protection against identity theft is to carefully protect your personal information, for example:

Do not share personal information over the phone, through the mail, or over the internet unless you initiated the contact or know the company/person you are dealing with.

Be suspicious if someone contacts you unexpectedly online and asks for your personal information. Riverland Bank will not contact you online and request your personal information.

Only open e-mails that look like they are from people or organizations you know, and even then, be cautious if they look questionable. Be especially wary of fraudulent e-mails or websites that have typos or other obvious mistakes.

Choose PINs and passwords that would be difficult to guess and avoid using easily identifiable information such as your mother’s maiden name, birth dates, the last four digits of your social security number, or phone numbers.

Shred old receipts, account statements, and unused credit card offers.

Pay attention to billing cycles and account statements and contact your bank if you don’t receive a monthly bill or statement.

Review account statements thoroughly to ensure all transactions are authorized.

Guard your mail from theft, promptly remove incoming mail, and do not leave bill payment envelopes in your mailbox with the flag up for pick up by mail carrier.

Obtain your free credit report annually and review your credit history to ensure it is accurate.

Be careful about where and how you conduct financial transactions, for example don’t use an unsecured Wi-Fi network because someone might be able to access the information you are transmitting or viewing.

Already a victim of ID Theft? Click on this link for assistance from the Federal Trade Commission.

Install software that protects against malware, or malicious software, which can access a computer system without your consent to steal passwords or account numbers. Also, use a firewall program to prevent unauthorized access to your PC. While protection options vary, make sure the settings allow for automatic updates.

Use the strongest authentication offered, especially for high-risk transactions. Use passwords that are difficult to guess and keep them secret. Create “strong” user IDs and passwords for your computers, mobile devices, and online accounts by using combinations of upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, and symbols that are hard to guess and then change them regularly. Although using the same password or PIN for several accounts can be tempting, doing so means a criminal who obtains one password or PIN can log in to other accounts.

You can have greater confidence that a website is authentic and that it encrypts your information during transmission if the web address starts with https://. Also, ensure that you are logged out of financial accounts when you complete your transactions or walk away from the computer. To learn about additional safety steps, review your web browser’s user instructions.

Ignore unsolicited requests, no matter how legitimate or enticing they appear. Be careful where and how you connect to the Internet. Only access the Internet for banking or other activities that involve personal information with your own laptop or mobile device through a known, trusted, and secure connection. A public computer, such as at a hotel business center or public library, and free Wi-Fi networks are not necessarily secure.

Be careful when using social networking sites. Cyber criminals use social networking sites to gather details about individuals, such as their place or date of birth, a pet’s name, their mother’s maiden name, and other information that can help them figure out passwords — or how to reset them. Don’t share your ‘page’ or access to your information with anyone you don’t know and trust. Cyber criminals may pretend to be your ‘friend’ to convince you to send money or divulge personal information.

Since 2013, when the FBI began tracking an emerging financial cyber threat called business e-mail compromise (BEC), scammers have targeted large and small companies and organizations in every U.S. state.

According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), “the BEC scam continues to grow, evolve, and target businesses of all sizes. Since January 2015, there has been a 1,300 percent increase in identified exposed losses, now totaling over $3 billion.”

The most common scheme involves a scammer gaining access to a company’s network through a spear-phishing attack and the use of malware. Undetected, they may spend weeks or months studying the organization’s vendors, billing systems, and the CEO’s style of e-mail communication and even his or her travel schedule.

When the time is right, often when the CEO is away from the office, the scammers send a bogus e-mail from the CEO to a targeted employee – bookkeeper, accountant, controller, or chief financial officer. A request is made for an immediate wire transfer, usually to a trusted vendor. The targeted employee believes he is sending money to a familiar account, just as he has done in the past. But the account numbers are slightly different, and the transfer of what might be tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars ends up in a different account controlled by the criminal group.

If the fraud is not discovered in time, the money is hard to recover, thanks to the criminal group’s use of laundering techniques and “money mules” worldwide that drain the funds into other accounts that are difficult to trace.

Steps to Prevent BEC Scams:

Create intrusion detection system rules that flag e-mails with extensions that are similar to company e-mail. For example, legitimate e-mail of abc_company.com would flag fraudulent e-mail of abc-company.com.

Create an e-mail rule to flag e-mail communications where the “reply” e-mail address is different from the “from” e-mail address shown.

Color code virtual correspondence so e-mails from employee/internal accounts are one color and e-mails from non-employee/external accounts are another.

Verify changes in vendor payment location by adding additional two-factor authentication such as having secondary sign-off by company personnel.

Confirm requests for transfers of funds by using phone verification as part of a two-factor authentication; use previously known numbers, not the numbers provided in the e-mail request.

Carefully scrutinize all e-mail requests for transfer of funds to determine if the requests are out of the ordinary.

There are numerous scams presented daily to consumers, so you must always exercise caution when it comes to your personal and financial information. The following tips may help prevent you from becoming a fraud victim.

Be aware of incoming e-mail or text messages that ask you to click on a link. Links may install malware that allows thieves to spy on your computer and gain access to your information.

Be suspicious of any e-mail or phone requests to update or verify your personal information. A legitimate organization will not solicit updates in an unsecured manner for information it already has.

Confirm a message is legitimate by contacting the sender (it is best to look up the sender’s contact information yourself instead of using contact information in the message).

Assume offers that seem too good to be true, require you to act fast or insist on secrecy, are probably fraudulent.

Be on guard against fraudulent checks, cashier’s checks, money orders, or electronic fund transfers sent to you with requests for you to wire back part of the money.

Check your security settings on social network sites. Make sure they block out people who you don’t want to see your page.

Research all “apps” before downloading. Don’t assume an “app” is legitimate because it resembles the name of your bank or other company you are familiar with.

Be leery of any offers that pressure you to send funds quickly by wire transfer or involve another party who insists on secrecy.

Beware of Disaster-Related Financial Scams. Con artists take advantage of people after catastrophic events by claiming to be from legitimate charitable organizations when, in fact, they are attempting to steal money or valuable personal information.

Fallen victim to a fraud or scam? Click here to report it.

There are numerous scams presented daily to consumers, so you must always exercise caution when it comes to your personal and financial information.

The following tips may help prevent you from becoming a fraud victim.

Don’t disclose your account number over the phone unless you initiate the call.

Guard your account information. Never leave it out in the open or write in on an envelope.

Don’t carry your PIN in your wallet, purse, or pocket – or write it on your ATM or debit card. Commit it to memory.

Carefully check your ATM or debit card transactions; the funds for this item will be quickly transferred out of your checking or other deposit account.

Periodically check your account activity, especially if you bank online. Compare the current balance and transactions on your statement to those you’ve recorded. Establish transaction alerts and report any discrepancies to the bank immediately.

Keep a record of your account numbers, expiration dates, and the telephone numbers of each card issuer so you can report a loss quickly.

Draw a line through blank spaces on charge or debit slips above the total so the account can’t be changed.

Don’t sign a blank charge or debit slip.

Reconcile your monthly statements promptly and compare the transactions to your receipts. Report mistakes or discrepancies as soon as possible.

Carry only the cards you will need.

Cut up old cards – cutting through the number – before you throw them away.