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Last updated on Friday, November 22, 2013
(SALEM) - On Tuesday, First Harrison Bank sent out an alert to email recipients that a phishing email containing a malicious link was circulating.
The Leader Democrat reports, the email will urge you to click on the link so that the cybercriminals can collect personal and financial information or infect your computer with a virus.
Cybercriminals have become quite savvy in their attempts to lure people into giving out their personal information, such as usernames, passwords or debit/credit card information.
The email they send masquerades as legitimate communication from financial institutions, government agencies, or any other service or business. Often people act too quickly, because the phishing email may threaten that an account has been compromised or will be closed.
If you are unsure if an email you have received is legitimate or not, try to verify it with these steps:
- Contact the company directly. Using a contact number from a statement or the back of your credit/debit card.
- Do not use the contact information in the email.
- Search for the company online - again do not use the information provided in the email.
Also on Tuesday afternoon, First Harrison Bank posted on their Facebook account, an alert about fraudulent text messages.
"It appears that select Verizon customers are receiving fraudulent texts from 812-920-0182 stating there are issues with their First Harrison Account and asking them to call 818-760-5448 - your immediate attention is required. This is NOT us. We would never contact you in this way. Please do not respond to this message. If you receive a text like this one, it is a scam. Please do not give out any of your personal information. We're working to find the origin of these text messages. Again, we would never contact you in this way. Sorry for the inconvenience."
On Wednesday, Nov. 20, they posted that no accounts had been compromised so far.
"To alleviate any concerns, customers and non-customers are receiving the scam text message. No one has accessed any of your information. The originators of the scam most likely just have a list of phonenumbers that they are texting. As long as you don't respond with your personal information, your banking information is perfectly safe."
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