Internet Fraud and Online Security

As a customer of River Cities Bank, the privacy and security of your personal and account information is extremely important to us. By practicing good security habits, you can help us ensure that your private information is protected.

As the level of doing business electronically increases, so does the level of criminal activity on the Internet. Criminals attempt to gain control of your assets by acquiring your personal information through the Internet. Protect yourself by learning more about the methods these criminals use to collect personal information:

Spoofing, Phishing, and Pharming

Despite the “cutesy” names, spoofing, phishing, and pharming are criminal activities that open the door for “cyber thieves” to potentially steal unsuspecting people’s personal information. The best defense against online identity theft is knowledge and forewarning – be suspicious of every request you receive asking for your personal information. Read on to learn more…

Spoofing
A spoof refers to a hoax or imitation, as a verb it means to deceive. A spoofed email is a deception because it appears to have come from a trusted source. The individual performing the spoof will use an email address similar to that of a trusted source, or they will change the header information of the email so that it appears as though the trusted source is the sender. A spoofed Website is an imitation site that uses the exact graphics, colors and layout from the trusted site it is trying to imitate.

Phishing
In the computer world, phishing is the act of tricking someone into giving up their confidential information. Often a spoofed email is used to request personal information or as bait to lure someone to an imitation of a legitimate site. If they fall for the bait and believe the fake Web page to be authentic, then the phishing expedition has been a success.

Pharming
Pharming is when criminal hackers redirect Internet traffic from a legitimate Web site to a different, identical-looking site (spoofed site) in order to trick you into entering your personal information on their fake site. Banks or similar financial sites are often the target of these attacks - the criminals try to acquire your personal information in order to access your bank account, steal your identity, or commit other kinds of fraud in your name.

Pharming is more dangerous than phishing, since you can be redirected to a false site without any participation or knowledge on your part.

Protect Yourself! Safe Computing Practices

Several precautions can be taken to safeguard your personal information and your computer against attack during everyday use. The security tips below can help you become knowledgeable and aware of the methods criminals may use to steal your information.

Though some fraudulent emails are easy to spot, some can be well-written and provide a sense of comfort that the email is safe. However, links in emails can lead you to fraudulent Web sites that ask you for personal information; and these sites can look just like the actual River Cities Bank site.

One thing to watch for is the name of the company in the URL linking to the Web site. For example, the URL for “www.microsoft.com” could appear on a phishing email as:
          www.micosoft.com
          www.mircosoft.com
          www.verify-microsoft.com

NEVER provide any information on a site you entered from an email link. In fact, you should never follow a link provided in an email requesting your personal information. River Cities Bank, its subsidiaries and affiliates, will never send you an email requesting your personal or account information (such as social security numbers, account numbers, or PINs). Email is not a secure form of communication and should never be used to convey sensitive information.

If you notice something suspicious about a trusted Web site, report it—by telephone if possible—to the business or site owner. It may be a normal glitch or a new update, or it may be a mistake a criminal has made when trying to duplicate a Web site.

When an attacker attempts to impersonate a legitimate Web site, sometimes the user will receive a message from the browser indicating that the Web site's "certificate" does not match the address being visited. (See below for an example of what this message looks like). You should NEVER click ‘Yes’ in response to such a window, since you may possibly be accessing a spoofed Web site and opening yourself up to a pharming attack.

Never enter information into a pop-up window. River Cities Bank does not use pop-up windows to request customer account information. Pop-up windows are often from programs called "spyware" or "adware". These regularly come hidden inside free downloads such as screen savers or music-sharing software. The pop-ups can be anything from harmless advertisements to dangerous programs that can relay information to other sources.

Protect yourself by using a pop-up window blocker, regularly scanning your computer for spyware (there are several good, free programs you can find by searching the internet), keeping your operating system and Web browser current, and always avoiding downloads of programs from unknown or untrusted sources.

Installing anti-virus software on a computer helps to protect it from viruses, worms, and Trojan horses. The software scans files that you download from the Internet or receive in an email. If the file contains malicious content, the anti-virus software will warn you and destroy the file, should you desire. In order to be effective, it is important that anti-virus software is kept up-to-date since new viruses and worms are created every day.

Installing firewalls on a computer also helps protect against unwanted attacks. While viruses can be used to attack a computer from the inside, hackers can also try to invade a computer from the outside. Firewalls can be used to block such attacks, filter infected files or emails, and alert you if an unauthorized user tries to access your system.

To protect information traveling over the Internet, the data is encrypted before it is sent. The stronger the encryption the less likely someone else will be able to read it should the data be intercepted. If a Web page is encrypting data, a lock (like this one: ) will show in the bottom right hand corner of the page.