|
Use caution when disclosing your account numbers, social security
numbers, etc. to other persons. If someone calls you or emails you
and asks for your account number and says they're from the Credit
Union, do not give it to them. Credit Union staff already have access
to your information and will not need to ask for it. The Credit
Union will never ask for your personal financial information through
email. For more information on online security see more
eBenefits articles and the Credit Union privacy
policy.
Risky Business
By Pat Bohm Trostle, Herald
Journal
Some days, the most dangerous thing you can do to your pocketbook
is answer your email. According to a recent survey by Wells Fargo,
a leading financial institution, Americans routinely invite identity
theft through their risky choices online.
The study found that few consumers thought it was dangerous to
provide personal information when requested by a financial institution
via email. Only 22 percent considered it "very high risk."
Amazingly, one-third of consumers polled were comfortable entering
personal information into a pop-up ad. In contrast, 76 percent of
the Internet experts whom the Wells Fargo survey checked with saw
such behavior as very high risk.
Even though very careful Internet users still run the risk of identity
theft, there are plenty of ways to reduce the chance it will happen.
Reducing unwanted, unsolicited email, or spam, is a good start.
Don't open spam, don't reply to it -- even by clicking on its "unsubscribe"
link. And don't buy anything you see in a spam message.
Consumer Reports, a magazine published by the nonprofit organization
Consumers Union, advises in its September issue, to use one email
address for family and friends and another for all other contact.
SpamMotel offers a disposable forwarding-address service, while
Yahoo and Hotmail give free email accounts. An address with embedded
digits, like minnie2mouse2@isp.net can help foil spammers, too.
Another caution from Consumer Report is to avoid listing your email
address in its regular form if you post it on a publicly accessible
Web site. Instead, they advise posting it in a form that stymies
software, but is understandable to a human reader, for instance,
"minnie AT isp DOT com."
Besides avoiding spam, thwart viruses, hackers and spyware. Dodge
them by not opening unexpected email attachments, even from someone
you know. Anti-virus software is available, for instance through
McAfee or Symantec, often with its own downloadable updates.
There is even a special name for spam that is aimed at collecting
personal and financial information from a trusting email recipient
-- phishing.
"Only phonies phish for info," said Ken Hunter, president
and CEO of the Council of Better Business Bureaus in a press release
this summer. "Consumers and businesses can protect themselves
by following one simple rule: When in doubt, delete."
Barbara Rowe, Utah State University Extension leader in family
and consumer sciences, noted an increase in spam aimed at entrapping
the unwary consumer. She commented on the recent flurry of email
invitations to a lower home mortgage rate:
"They tell you that you qualify for a lower mortgage rate
and then ask you for financial information. How did they know you
qualified for a lower rate in the first place?"she said. Legitimate
financial institutions don't ask for personal information via e-mail,
not even over the telephone, she added. The consumer cannot know
if it's secure.
While email is not secure, some Web sites are. They are designated
"https://" and the user will see a locked padlock icon
at the bottom of the computer screen. If the padlock is open, the
site is not secure.
Some spammers try an end-run around the consumer by offering a
shortcut to a Web site in their email message. If an email from
a financial institution or credit card company -- even one with
a national name -- shows up in your in-box, and you did not request
service from the firm, be suspicious. Instead of accessing the company's
Web site by clicking on the address contained in the email message,
go directly to the its Web site by entering the firm's address on
your Internet browser, such as Netscape, Internet Explorer, etc.
Or just pick up the phone, and call the company using a number you
know to be legitimate.
It doesn't hurt to use common sense, either. After entering personal
information on a secure Web site, remember to click to another site
when the transaction is finished, or even go offline. This is especially
recommended if the computer is in a space that is not completely
private.
Rowe also talked about email messages from unknown individuals,
who ask for help managing a financial problem, for instance, a delay
in processing a large check. She had received messages from people
claiming to be from Nigeria and Belize. In Utah, as well as other
parts of the country, she said, we are open and trusting.
"We give people the benefit of the doubt," she said,
"but they are looking for your address, your social security
number, your telephone number. It's a new wrinkle on an old theme,
and if they can do it online, they will."
|
