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Preventing Fraud

Identity Theft

Criminals are constantly coming up with new ways to carry out identity theft. Your identity can be stolen as the result of any number of actions. Some common methods thieves use include:

1. Fraudulent telephone calls, letters, letter or emails that asks for your personal banking information.
2. Stealing your purse, wallet, mail or any other source of personal information. 
3. Rifling through your garbage.
4. Posing as a landlord, potential employer, etc. 
5. Hacking into unsecured websites you have visited and entered information into.

Armed with your personal information, a person may be able to access your accounts, establish credit and obtain services and benefits in your name.

Protect Your Identity

You can help protect yourself from identity theft. Learning how it occurs and taking appropriate action, can reduce your chances of becoming a target.

1. Sign credit cards when they arrive.
2. Safely discard all personal materials. Consider purchasing a personal shredder for home use.
3. Review your credit union statements and credit card statements when they arrive.  Advise your financial institution of any discrepancies immediately.
4. Memorize your PIN number. Do not write it down or disclose it to anyone.
5. Perform an annual credit check. An annual credit check is available free from a credit bureau, such as Equifax or TransUnion.
6. Report any theft of personal information to your local police, your credit union, the credit bureau and any service providers that you use.
7. Never provide financial information such as personal passwords by phone or email.

Telephone Inquiries

Your credit union will never call you to ask for or verify your personal information, credit card number, PIN number or account number. Never give out or verify any of your personal information over the phone.

The best response to this type of inquiry is to ask to set up an appointment at your credit union. Ask for the name and phone number of the caller. If you are contacted by anyone purporting to be a credit union employee looking to obtain or confirm personal information, notify your credit union immediately.

Safe Surfing

1. The easiest way to tell if an email is fraudulent is by remembering that your credit union will never email you a request for your personal passwords, personal information numbers or login information.  Legitimate credit unions do not ask you to follow links to their secure websites in email communication with you. Emails designed to lure you click through to a false, harmful site are a particular kind of fraud called phishing, and it can be a serious threat. http://phonebusters.com/english/recognizeit_phishingemails.html
2. If you are unsure of the authenticity of an email, delete it and call your branch to find out if an email was indeed distributed.
3. Protect your computer with a firewall, anti-spyware and anti-virus software. Update the anti-virus software frequently (daily if possible).
4. Install new security patches as soon as your operating system and Internet browser manufacturers make them available.
5. Never enter personal information such as credit card numbers or SIN number into unsecured websites. Know the ways to tell which websites are secure: look for the padlock symbol, the https://, and so on. (see Secure Online Banking, below).
6. Never disclose your passwords and/or PIN to anyone via email or any other way. You must be the only person that knows your password/PIN. Credit unions take measures to ensure that you are the only one that knows your password. It is not even known by your credit union.
7. Disable automatic password-save features in the browsers and software you use to access the Internet.
8. Set your browser to automatically erase the cache (the pages you visited stored in temporary memory) when you close it.
9. Learn how to protect yourself from malicious (tracking) cookies. For maximum security, set your browser to delete cookies on exit. 

Online Banking: MemberDirect Credit Union Links

Security

Protecting Personal Information

ATM Security

Safe Online Banking

Reporting Fraud