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Identity Theft and Internet Banking Safety


E-mail Safety Tips

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.