ONLINE FRAUD PREVENTION

Peoples State Bank wants to help you protect yourself against online schemes. E-mail fraud is one of the more common and damaging methods used to scam customers on the Internet today. By educating yourself and following some simple tips you'll be less likely to fall victim to one of these schemes.

Peoples State Bank will never ask you to provide account or other personal identification information via e-mail.

Know About Common Schemes:

The FDIC has informed all financial institutions of recent fraudulent e-mails that have been sent out that appear to be from legitimate financial institutions.

Recently, scammers have become very sophisticated in their attempts to obtain your personal and account information. One such scam known as "phishing" or "spoofing" sends the victim an e-mail claiming to be from a reputable financial institution. The message in the e-mail directs the victim to click on a link that redirects them to a false web page that looks like a legitimate bank web page. The goal of the criminals is to get you to enter your personal data so they can steal your information.

Before submitting sensitive information through any website, look for the locked padlock on the browser's status bar or look for an "s" after the http in the website address (https://).

Summary:

As a reminder, never divulge any personal identification information if requested via an e-mail. Personal identification information is defined as:

• Account or credit card numbers
  
• Passwords or PINs
  
• Social Security Number
  
• Mother’s Maiden Name
  
• Other private information

For additional guidance in how to avoid these fraudulent attempts, visit the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) consumer help site at http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft/.

Peoples State Bank is strongly committed to our relationship with you. We want to help you protect yourself and your accounts from fraudulent methods to gain access to your information. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.