IMPORTANT WARNINGS OF EMAIL SCAMS
The US District Court for Northern Illinois has issued a warning describing email scams that use FORGED court documents to seek payments or personal financial information. The documents may tell recipients that they are entitled to money from a class action settlement if they first send in a payment or provide their bank account information. Recipients of these emails may file a compliant online with the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.IC3.gov
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The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is issuing this advisory to help financial institutions guard against a growing number of e-mail fraud schemes in which criminals misappropriate funds by deceiving financial institutions and their customers into conducting wire transfers. This advisory also provides red flags—developed in consultation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Secret Service (USSS)—that financial institutions may use to identify and prevent such e-mail fraud schemes.
E-mail Compromise Fraud:
Schemes in which criminals compromise the e-mail accounts of victims to send fraudulent wire transfer instructions to financial institutions in order to misappropriate funds. The main types of e-mail compromise fraud include:
Business E-mail Compromise (BEC):
Targets a financial institution’s commercial customers.
E-mail Account Compromise (EAC):
Targets a victim’s personal accounts.
BEC and EAC schemes are among the growing trend of cyber-enabled crime adversely affecting financial institutions. Since 2013, there have been approximately 22,000 reported cases of BEC and EAC fraud involving $3.1 billion.1 In some cases, financial institutions have absorbed losses through reimbursing customers victimized by e-mail compromise fraud. Financial institutions can play an important role in identifying, preventing, and reporting fraud schemes by promoting greater communication and collaboration among their internal anti-money laundering (AML), business, fraud prevention, and cybersecurity units.
Unlike account takeover activity, e-mail-compromise schemes involve impersonating victims to submit seemingly legitimate transaction instructions for a financial institution to execute. In account takeover activity, criminals access victims’ accounts and are able to directly execute transactions without submitting transaction instructions.2
While BEC and EAC schemes have unique aspects, as noted below, both focus on using compromised e-mail accounts to mislead financial institutions and their customers into conducting unauthorized wire transfers. Both BEC and EAC schemes can be broken down into three stages:
Stage One - Compromising Victim Information and Email Accounts
Criminals first unlawfully access a victim’s e-mail account through social engineering3 or computer intrusion techniques. Criminals subsequently exploit the victim’s e-mail account to obtain information on the victim’s financial institutions, account details, contacts, and related information.
Stage Two - Transmitting Fraudulent Transaction Instructions
Criminals then use the victim’s stolen information to e-mail fraudulent wire transfer instructions to the financial institution in a manner appearing to be from the victim. To this end, criminals will use either the victim’s actual e-mail account they now control or create a fake e-mail account resembling the victim’s e-mail.
Stage Three - Executing Unauthorized Transactions
Criminals trick the victim’s employee or financial institution into conducting wire transfers that appear legitimate but are, in fact, unauthorized. The fraudulent transaction instructions direct the wire transfers to the criminals’ domestic or foreign bank accounts. Banks in Asia—particularly in China and Hong Kong—are common destinations for these fraudulent transactions.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact a banking representative for further information.
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ANNOUNCING THE
ARRIVAL OF OUR
MOBILE
BANKING APP for iPhone and Android
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During any time of year, NorthSide Community Bank and the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) want consumers to have the information they need before they leave home to keep their money safe.
Financial professionals agree that the safest and most convenient way to travel with your money is to take a small amount of cash with you. It’s also a good idea to carry a debit, credit or ATM card. These cards are convenient while traveling because they are easy to carry, easy to use and often offer the lowest fees and the best exchange rates.
However, travelers still need to plan ahead to be prepared. To help, we offer these tips to consumers about what they need to take care of before they take off:
For your protection against debit card fraud, NorthSide Community Bank has restricted transactions originating in countries with a high level of fraudulent transaction.
Click here to see a listing of restricted countries. If you are traveling to one or more of these countries just call us first!
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Harp 2.0 |
Expense Tracking Comes to NorthSide |
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Click on the house for more information |
You now can track your expenses with new features added to our internet banking product. Check out the new features for yourself or contact a banker for more information.
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Click Here to learn about the expiration of the Temporary Full FDIC Insurance Coverage for Noninterest-Bearing Transaction Accounts.