When you are making transactions on the Internet a common way that account information is stolen is through e-mail. Benton County State Bank will never ask you to e-mail information such as: personal ID, account numbers, or passwords. These tips will help you recognize a fake e-mail and protect yourself against them.
Fake e-mails will often:
Ask for your personal information. Fake e-mails often contain a generic greeting, may claim that your information has been compromised, and request that you verify your account by sending information through an e-mail.
Appear to be from a legitimate source. Many e-mails appear to be from a legitimate address, but you should not rely on the name or address in the “from” field because this can be easily duplicated or altered.
Contain fake job offers. Some fake e-mails are from fake companies offering jobs. Often these jobs are work-at-home positions and are schemes to victimize both the applicant and the customers. Make sure that the company is legitimate.
Contain prize or gift certificate offers. Some fake e-mails promise a prize in exchange for completing a survey. In order to collect the prize you must provide personal information.
Link to counterfeit web sites. Many fake e-mails direct you to fake web sites designed to look real but which actually collect personal information for illegal uses.
Link to real web sites. As well as linking to counterfeit web sites, some fake e-mails will link you to real web sites. These web sites still collect personal information for illegal uses, but by using a real web site makes the e-mail appear legitimate.
Contain fake phone numbers. Fake e-mails often contain a fake phone number for you to call. Verify that the numbers are real before calling.
Contain real phone numbers. Some telephone numbers that are listed are actual phone numbers where the company has no knowledge of the fraudulent e-mail. Many fraudsters use real phone numbers to make the e-mail appear legitimate.
