COVID-19 Pandemic Fraud Awareness
April 8, 2020
As you may have heard, fraudulent attempts on online banking credentials and debit cards have increased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, we have been made aware that scammers are directly targeting clients of other banks. Scammers reach out via text or phone to account holders, posing as a bank associate. The caller requests confidential client information such as an User ID and Password. These calls appear to be originating from a valid bank phone number - but they are not.
Parkside Financial Bank & Trust will never proactively contact you to request your secure online banking credentials in order to verify your identity.
Should you receive a text or call appearing to be from Parkside Financial Bank & Trust, but you do not recognize the caller, please hang up and contact our team directly. The contact information for our team is available by clicking visiting our team page here.
During this unprecedented time, additional fraud threats are on the rise. Safegaurd yourself by learning more about other pandemic related fraud schemes via the FBI PANDEMIC FRAUD PSA.
Teleconferencing Hijacking During COVID-19 Pandemic
The FBI released a warning following reports of video-teleconferencing platforms, currently used by many schools and businesses during the pandemic, being hijacked by hackers. Follow these best practices when utilizing virtual teleconferencing:
- Do not make meetings or classrooms public.
- Require a meeting password or use the waiting room feature to control the admittance of guests.
- Do not share a link to a teleconference on an unrestricted publicly available social media post. Provide the link directly to intended participants.
- Ensure your organization’s telework policy or guide addresses requirements for physical and information security.
Read more tips and best practices from the FBI here.
We take the security of your financial information very seriously, and welcome your questions.