In an online survey of U.S. banks and credit unions of all sizes, respondents ranked phishing and vishing (socially engineered schemes) in the top 5 fraud trends. Half of the respondents in the 2012 Faces of Fraud Survey, rank phishing among the worst threats, yet only 28 percent say they feel prepared to detect and prevent them. Among the 200+ participants, 82 percent say they actually find out about fraud when customers or members notify them. In the same breath, the survey also shows that 68 percent of institutions see the lack of customers’ fraud awareness as the primary source of fraud.
Obviously, there’s room for improvement on both sides. Numerous security breaches are started by a bank customer who unknowingly or foolishly provides personal information such as passwords and credit card, social security, and bank account numbers to fraudsters.
Steps you can take:
- Have good habits – do not respond to the links in an unsolicited email or on Facebook
- Do not open attachments from unsolicited email
- Protect your passwords and don’t reveal them to anyone
- Do not give sensitive information to anyone—on the phone, in person or through email
- Look at the website’s URL (web address.) In many phishing cases, the web address may look legitimate but the URL may be misspelled or the domain is different (.com when it should be .gov)
- Keep your browser up-to-date and apply security patches
If you believe you have compromised sensitive information about your accounts, contact your financial institution, credit card company, or appropriate authorities.
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