The increasing popularity of Internet Banking has brought about an increase in Internet Fraud.  A common scam is called "phishing" (pronounced "fishing"). Phishing usually involves an email sent with the intent of capturing personal information such as:  Social Security numbers, online banking login information, or credit card numbers. These emails are spoofed and may appear to come from a legitimate company such as a bank, credit card company, or Internet Service Provider. If you receive a suspicious email, do not open attachments or click on links.

Keep in mind

• Warren Bank will not request the following personal information using email or pop up windows:  account numbers, Social Security numbers, user names or passwords.

If you receive a suspicious email message that appears to come from Warren Bank:

• Do not respond to the email message
• Forward the message to fraud@warrenbank.net, or call Warren Bank at
  586-498-3300
• Delete the message from your personal email inbox

How to Identify a Fraudulent Email

Identifying fraudulent email messages is not always easy, and the criminals who use them are becoming more sophisticated.  Phony email messages may ask you to reply directly or select a link that will take you to a fraudulent website that appears legitimate.  Fraudulent email messages will generally ask you to provide sensitive personal, financial or account information.

Tips for spotting fraudulent emails:

• Urgent or threatening tone.   Email scams may claim that your account will be closed if you fail to confirm or authenticate personal information immediately. 
• Request for personal or financial information.   Fraudulent emails often claim that the bank has lost important security information that needs to be updated and may request that the user update this information online.  
• Misspellings and poor grammar.   Fraudulent emails often use improper grammar and contain misspellings.
• Warren Bank will not request the following personal information using email or pop up windows:  account numbers, Social Security numbers, user names or passwords.

How to Protect Yourself

• Ensure that your browser and computer operating system are up to date with all security patches. 
• Use spy-ware detection tools and ad-ware blocking software to identify and delete unknown code on your personal computer that may monitor and collect your keystrokes and send personal information unknowingly to third parties.
• If your software has identified "virus/spy-ware",   remove it and then change your Online Banking password.
• Do not access the Internet without an updated firewall enabled, especially when using DSL or a cable modem.

Websites to visit

• Antivirus:  Norton Antivirus, McAfee Antivirus, or AVG Antivirus.
• Spyware Cleaning Tools:  Microsoft AntiSpyware, Lavasoft  AdAware, or Spybot Search and Destroy
• Phishing attacks: AntiPhishing.org
• The netcraft toolbar helps users easily identify suspicious sites.   This toolbar may be downloaded and installed from here.

General precautions

• Delete suspicious emails immediately and do not open them. 
• Do not click on links from suspicious or unknown senders.
• Do not launch email attachments from an unknown sender.
• Be selective when providing your email address to a questionable source.  Sharing your email address may make you more likely to receive fraudulent emails.