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	Security Alerts September 8, 2010 Suspicious Telephone Calls Claiming to Be From the FDIC The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has received numerous reports of suspicious telephone calls where the caller claims to represent the FDIC and is calling regarding the collection of an outstanding debt. To date, the callers have alleged that the call recipient is delinquent in payment of a loan that was applied for over the Internet or made through a payday lender. The loan may or may not actually exist. The caller attempts to authenticate the claim by providing sensitive personal information, such as name, Social Security number, and date of birth, supposedly taken from the loan application. The recipient is then strongly urged to make a payment over the phone to “avoid a lawsuit and possible arrest.” In some instances, the caller is said to sound aggressive and threatening. These suspicious telephone calls are fraudulent. Recipients should consider them as an attempt to steal money or collect personal identifying information. The FDIC generally does not initiate unsolicited telephone calls to consumers and is not involved with the collection of debts on behalf of operating lenders and financial institutions. If a caller demonstrates that he or she has the recipient's sensitive personal information, such as Social Security number, date of birth, and bank account numbers, the recipient may be the victim of identity theft and should review his or her credit reports for signs of possible fraud. The individual should also consider placing a “fraud alert” on his or her credit reports. This can be done by contacting one of the three consumer reporting companies listed below. Only one of the three companies needs to be contacted. That company is required to contact the other two, which will place an alert on their versions of the report. * TransUnion: 1-800-680-7289; www.transunion.com; Fraud Victim Assistance Division, P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, California 92834-6790 * Equifax: 1-800-525-6285; www.equifax.com; P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, Georgia 30374-0241 * Experian: 1-888-EXPERIAN (397-3742); www.experian.com; P.O. Box 9554, Allen, Texas 75013 If you received such a call and provided your personal information, we urge you to contact us immediately at 1-866-STEUBEN (1-866-783-8236) so that we can protect your account. After regular business hours, you may call 1-888-324-2626 to report your card as compromised.
	Important Terms to know: Vishing Vishing operates like phishing and tries to persuade consumers to divulge their personal information by claiming that their accounts have been suspended, tampered with, deactivated, or terminated. A couple of variations on the scam have arisen. The first mixes phishing and vishing. The recipient receives an e-mail message but is instructed to call rather than click on a link to verify personal data. Phishing With phishing, a criminal sends an e-mail and pretends to be a bank, a credit card company, or a major online merchant, such as Amazon. The e-mail outlines a problem with the person's account and asks the individual to click on a link to verify his or her account information. The user is then directed to a fake site that collects the login and password information and uses it to perpetrate identity theft. Pharming Pharming is a scamming practice in which malicious code is installed on a personal computer or server, misdirecting users to fraudulent Web sites without their knowledge or consent. Pharming has been called "phishing without a lure." Smishing Smishing is a security attack in which the user is tricked into downloading a Trojan horse, virus or other malware onto his cellular phone or other mobile device. Smishing is short for "SMS phishing." Virus A virus is a program or programming code that replicates by being copied or initiating its copying to another program, computer boot sector or document. Viruses can be transmitted as attachments to an e-mail note or in a downloaded file, or be present on a diskette or CD. Worm A worm is a self-replicating virus that does not alter files but resides in active memory and duplicates itself. Worms use parts of an operating system that are automatic and usually invisible to the user. It is common for worms to be noticed only when their uncontrolled replication consumes system resources, slowing or halting other tasks. Spoofing E-mail spoofing is the forgery of an e-mail header so that the message appears to have originated from someone or somewhere other than the actual source. Distributors of spam often use spoofing in an attempt to get recipients to open, and possibly even respond to, their solicitations. Spyware Spyware is any technology that aids in gathering information about a person or organization without their knowledge. On the Internet, spyware is programming that is put in someone's computer to secretly gather information about the user and relay it to advertisers or other interested parties. Spyware can get in a computer as a software virus or as the result of installing a new program. Phone Scams (New) Typically the goal is to get you to reveal personal, bank account information, or to make you do something that will result in unwanted charges on your account. Individuals and businesses are equally affected by these scams although the schemes might be different. Click here to find out more about phone scams.	Important Website Links to know: Deposit insurance resources for consumers http://www.fdic.gov/quicklinks/consumers.html Bureau of Consumer Protection http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/index.shtml Identity Theft Information http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/ NY State Consumer Protection Board http://www.consumer.state.ny.us/

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