Friday, 29 March 2024

Savings Bank launches #BanksNeverAskThat anti-phishing campaign

NORTH COAST, Calif. – Savings Bank of Mendocino County with banks across the nation and the American Bankers Association are simultaneously launching the #BanksNeverAskThat campaign on Oct. 1 to mark the beginning of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month.

This first-of-its-kind, industry-wide campaign is designed to educate consumers about the persistent threat of phishing scams.

The FTC estimates that consumers lost 1.9 billion to phishing schemes in 2019.

To combat phishing, the #BanksNeverAskThat campaign provides tips to empower consumers to identify bogus bank communications. It’s not just phone calls from suspicious numbers. It’s also emails and text messages masked to look like they’re from your bank asking for sensitive information like passwords and social security numbers.

If you’re contacted by phone, email or text and are asked for your account number, username, password or Social Security number, that’s not your bank.

Watch out for emails with misspelled words, poor grammar or that ask you to click a link or provide personal information. The sender may claim to be someone from your bank, but it’s a scam.

Your bank will never ask you to sign in or give personal information via text message.

Would your bank ever call you to verify your account number? No! If you’re ever in doubt that the caller is legitimate, just hang up and call the bank directly at a number you trust.

You’ve probably seen some of these scams before. But that doesn’t stop a scammer from trying.

Do you think you fell for a scam email, phone call or text message? Here’s what to do next: Take a deep breath. You’re going to get through this. Change your passwords. Call your bank and let them know what happened. Notify credit agencies and set up fraud alerts. Protect yourself moving forward by adding multi-factor authentication.

For anti-phishing tips follow Savings Bank of Mendocino County on Facebook and Instagram and test your scam IQ by taking a 5-minute quiz at www.BanksNeverAskThat.com.

Share your scam spotting score on Twitter for a chance to win weekly prizes courtesy of the American Bankers Association.

Each Friday in October the ABA will draw 15 winners. One lucky grand-prize winner will receive $1,000. Will it be you?

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