In our blog post earlier this week we touched on keeping yourself safe when online shopping. We’re still on the topic of cyber security, but today we’ll focus on identifying and avoiding scams hidden on websites, in emails and even in text messages. 

Be sure you play it smart online and with suspicious texts to your phone.

Cyber criminals are always trying to up their game when it comes to getting your information, and Americans lost over $10 million last year to online crimes. Here’s how to make sure you don’t lose a cent.

Website Safety

Everything you search and click on is cataloged, and marketers use this information to show you ads for things you might be interested in. Unfortunately, criminals can do this as well. If you go to a website searching for something in particular, be cautious about the ads you see. Some are legitimate, but others aren’t.

Be cautious when clicking ads. You can hover over the ad so the web address you’ll be taken to by clicking will either pop-up next to your cursor or will appear in the bottom left corner of the browser window. This is an easy way to see if the ad is valid or not.

Email Safety

We’ve covered this topic before, but here’s a little refresher:

·        Check the email address of the sender. If you don’t recognize or the name of the sender and the address don’t match up, it could be a scammer

·        Obvious typos in the body of the message are also a huge red flag

·        Hover over links in the message. If they take you to an address that has nothing to do with the message or the sender, DON’T CLICK THEM!

Almost all companies have policies not to email customers asking for personal or financial information. If you receive a suspicious email, go here to file a complaint, then delete the email immediately.

Phone Safety

You’ve most likely heard about harassing calls from people saying they are from your bank asking for personal information over the phone. However, criminals are now sending texts with links in them posing as stores like Wal-Mart. All it takes for them to have your personal information is selecting the link. If you get one of these texts, delete it immediately.

There will always be those that try to use technology to steal from others. However, acting slowly and taking a little extra time to examine an ad, email or text closely can prevent the unthinkable from happening.

If you ever receive a suspicious communication from someone claiming to be from Lincoln Savings Bank, please call us immediately to check. Your financial safety is of our utmost concern, and we will do everything we can to help keep your information private.

Our security measures prevent others from stealing your password, PIN or other secure information.

Scams. Hackers. Phishing schemes. You hear about all of these threats nightly on news broadcasts or on news websites. You may have been the target of one already. But things can get really scary when you start thinking about these threats and if they go after your banking information with Lincoln Savings Bank. We are here to assure you that, despite the advances in efforts by these criminals to access and steal your personal information, we follow the best practices in keeping it out of reach.

When it comes to personal information, account numbers and other vital bits of data, only the Lincoln Savings Bank employees that need to use them for transactions have access to them. Through special training and education programs, our employees learn the value of confidential information and how to protect against data theft.

Our physical, electronic and procedural safeguards meet federal security standards, and our technology is regularly tested to make sure that any weaknesses are pinpointed and fixed. If we notice discrepancies in any information or account, we act swiftly to correct them.

It is important to us that your personal information stays secure. You trust us with valuable financial and personal information. We take our responsibility in keeping this data private and out of other people’s hands seriously, and work every day to protect it.

You can also take steps to prevent this from happening. Never send any emails with account information or personal information. If you haven’t seen our blog post or video about identifying phishing scams, you can see it here.

At Lincoln Savings Bank, we want you to have a great experience with us, and keeping your personal and account information safe and secure is a huge part of that process. If you have any questions, you can contact us directly or look over our privacy policy.

It may seem like a life time ago when we were without smartphones and social media, but the truth is these technologies are still relatively new and pose new risks. Most of us are blinded by the ease of use and convenience of these services that we often overlook these risks. But as we become more confident in posting confidential information and more of use adapt smart phones we become more and more at risk or online fraud.

This can be seen in a recent study conducted by Javelin (a market research firm) that showed the number of fraud and identity theft incidents rising over the past few years. The increased amount of identity theft shows that the threat from online fraudsters is greater than ever. On the bright side the same study showed that the average cost per incident has been decreasing. This can be attributed to the increased security functions put in place by financial institutions such as being able to check your accounts with mobile devices and the ability to set advance alerts directed to your mobile devices. In order to reduce risk consumers should research these functions and take advantage of them when available. 

Frequently checking your online accounts along with activating alerts that are sent to your mobile device are two great ways to help reduce your risk, but it won’t completely eliminate your risk. You may also consider cleaning up your social media presence.

·         Adjust the security settings of you’re social media account to only share with those you want to.

·         Do not post personal information online, everything can be used by fraudsters.

o   Birthdays with months and years.

o   The name of your high school.

o   Email addresses.

o   Phone numbers and addresses.

Bank risk executives are expecting mobile banking to create the next big wave of financial services fraud. To help protect yourself from threats consider these following tips.

·         Start using a security password to protect your phone.

·         Do not save passwords on your phone.

·         Regularly update your applications, often these include security updates.

Businesses that utilize online banking also need to be aware of these online threats since they have a lot more money and facilities to get money out, like payroll and wires and near real-time wires and more ACH functionality.

Lincoln Savings Bank (LSB) takes the privacy and security of our customer data very seriously. With our recent online banking upgrade, we wanted to take this opportunity to remind you of the importance of protecting your personal information when using online banking. Federal financial regulators report that there has been an increase in the amount of cyber-criminals posing as financial institutions to target customers.

Here are a few steps you can take to help ensure the security of your online transactions.

• Remember that LSB will never e-mail, call or otherwise ask you for your online banking password or other electronic banking credentials. We may request your Login ID if you contact us for an online banking support request, though.

• Create a unique Login ID and Password using upper and lower case letters and also numbers. If you still use a “709” number for your Login ID, we encourage you to change that to something different. You can change that within online banking by clicking “Security” under the Preferences menu. You can also call us at 800-588-7551 to update your Login ID.

• Periodically change your password.

• Use a firewall and anti-virus software on your personal computer.

• Logout when you have finished your transactions. Do not just close the page.

Since commercial accounts are often targeted by thieves, LSB recommends each business take extra precaution and conduct their own risk assessment for online banking. We also recommend that businesses implement internal controls for any employees that have access to the business’ online banking accounts. These controls may include; password requirements, background checks, employee termination procedures, internal audits by a 3^rd party, etc…

The most important thing is that you contact us immediately if you feel as if your personal information has been compromised or if you discover any incorrect transactions on your account.