Identity and Fraud Protection: Know The Facts!

To learn how you can recognize fraud, click here.

Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in North America. It happens when someone steals your personal information – your social insurance card, driver’s license, health card, credit card, debit card or PIN number.

Criminals get this information in a number of ways including stealing your cards, posing as an employer, credit union or utility company employee, grabbing information from web sites that are not secure, sorting through garbage or using devious ways to find out your PIN number. It can happen to anyone. Once they have your card information and your PIN number, criminals can open up a new credit card account or financial account in your name. And the worst thing is, you won’t know about it until it’s too late.

Security of Personal Information is Our Top Priority
PenFinancial Credit Union takes steps to protect you. Protecting the confidentiality and security of your personal information is one of our top priorities. We actively work to detect and investigate any irregular activity in your accounts. PenFinancial debit and credit cards contain only the minimum amount of information necessary to make a transaction. As soon as you enter your personal identity number (PIN) at an ATM or point-of-sale machine, it is automatically scrambled before it’s sent on the network and the transaction begins. PenFinancial Credit Union will always continue to take whatever steps we can to help our members protect their identity and secure their personal information. There are also some simple but important steps that everyone should take as well in order to minimize their risk of identity theft.

• Keep your debit card in a safe place and don’t lend it to anyone, including friends and family.
• Memorize your PIN number. Don’t write it down, don’t disclose it to anyone and don’t pick an obvious PIN like your birth date, address telephone number etc.
• Don’t let your debit card out of sight when you’re conducting a transaction and don’t let it be “swiped” twice.
• Don’t use ATM or point-of-sale machines where you don’t fell secure. If anyone tries to distract you, retrieve your card and leave. When you’re making a transaction, use your hand or your body to prevent people from looking over your shoulder.
• Notify your financial institution immediately if you detect any irregular activity on your accounts or if your debit or credit card is lost or stolen or retained in an ATM machine.
• Shred documents that contain any personal information before you dispose of them and guard your mail from theft.
• Don’t give personal information or account numbers to anyone until you have confirmed the identity of the person asking for it. Do not trust mail or email solicitation from unknown sources.
• Protect your computer with a good firewall and anti-virus software and avoid posting personal information on publicly accessible web sites and on-line bulletin boards.
• When conducting any financial transactions over the internet, make sure that the site is secure and uses data encryption just as we do on the PenFinancial banking site – you can identify a secure site by looking for the “lock” icon at the bottom of the screen.

To learn how you can recognize fraud, click here.