Fraud Education Center

At BankFIRST, protecting you and all of your assets – including your identity – is our FIRST priority. To ensure your safety, BankFIRST has added a number of security measures and industry-standard technologies to provide enhanced protection from fraud and identity theft. We are committed to consistently safeguarding your personal and financial information.

Tools to Prevent Identity Theft
(requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)Fraud Alert: Phishing
(requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)Please click on the links below to learn more about protecting your confidential account information. For more information on our privacy policy, visit our privacy policy pages.

BankFIRST Customer Commitment: BankFIRST will never ask a customer to verify personal information via email. If you receive a suspicious email requesting this information, please notify us immediately or forward the suspicious email to netbank@bankfirst.com.

→ NACHA Phishing Alert: Email claiming to be from NACHA reported
→ Ebay and Craig's List
→ Unexpected Checks
→ Contacts from Overseas
→ Mystery Shoppers
→ Email Attorney Scams
→ Protecting Yourself
→ Fraud Resources

NACHA Phishing Alert: Email claiming to be from NACHA reported

NACHA – The Electronic Payments Association has received reports that individuals and/or companies have received a fraudulent e-mail that has the appearance of having been sent from NACHA. See sample below.

The subject line of the e-mail states: “Unauthorized ACH Transaction.” The e-mail includes a link that redirects the individual to a fake Web page and contains a link which is almost certainly an executable virus with malware. Do not click on the link. Both the e-mail and the related website are fraudulent.

Be aware that phishing e-mails frequently have links to Web pages that host malicious code and software. Do not follow Web links in unsolicited e-mails from unknown parties or from parties with whom you do not normally communicate, or that appear to be known but are suspicious or otherwise unusual.

NACHA itself does not process nor touch the ACH transactions that flow to and from organizations and financial institutions. NACHA does not send communications to individuals or organizations about individual ACH transactions that they originate or receive.

If malicious code is detected or suspected on a computer, consult with a computer security or anti-virus specialist to remove malicious code or re-install a clean image of the computer system. Always use anti-virus software and ensure that the virus signatures are automatically updated.

Ensure that the computer operating systems and common software applications security patches are installed and current.

Be alert for different variations of fraudulent e-mails.

EBay/Craig’s List

Many con artists will utilize classified ads to take advantage of unsuspecting victims. For example, if you list something for sale on a classified website, someone might come along and offer to buy the item. They will then send you a fake check in an amount that is greater than what you asked for. They will ask you to cash the check and then wire back the difference to them. When this happens, the bank will hold you responsible and you will have to pay the money out of your account.

Unexpected Checks

One of the most common wire transfer fraud scams involves sending an individual a check that was unexpected. The person that sends the check will ask the other party to cash the check and then wire part of the money to them. In almost all cases, the individual that asks to have the money wired will be located in another country. At first glance, this sounds like a great idea. You will be able to make hundreds or thousands of dollars simply for cashing a check. However, when you go through with it, the bank is going to hold you responsible and take the money out of your account. When the check bounces, they will charge the person that cashed the check. You could potentially be out thousands of dollars while the other person gets away with the money. If anyone sends you a check or money order, you should be very skeptical about cashing it. There is no legitimate reason why anyone would give you a check or money order and ask you to wire money anywhere in return.

Contacts from Overseas

Many of these scams start out with someone contacting you from overseas. They will either call you or e-mail you and ask for help. Since they cannot speak English very well, they will try to get you to help them in some manner. In most cases, it will involve cashing a check or taking a credit card payment. Then you will need to wire the money to them in order to help them out. If anyone contacts you from another country and asks for your help, you should examine the situation very closely.

Mystery Shopper

It is true that some retailers hire marketing research companies to evaluate the quality of service in their stores and these companies often use "mystery shoppers" to get the information anonymously. They assign a mystery shopper to make a particular purchase in a store or restaurant, for example, and then report on the experience. Typically, the shopper is reimbursed, and can keep the product or service. Scammers are using newspaper ads and emails to create the impression that they have lucrative mystery shopper jobs to offer with reputable companies. These ads usually promote a website where consumers can “register” to become mystery shoppers. The "secret shopper" assignment is to test the money wiring service Money Gram. Recipients are instructed to cash an enclosed check at his or her bank, keep a small portion and wire the rest. The check is returned to the bank either “account closed”, “counterfeit” or “refer to maker”.

Email Attorney Scam

An email is received via a law firm’s website inquiring about hiring an attorney. The case will yield a big settlement so the potential client sends a large Cashier’s Check as a retainer. Shortly after the check is sent, the potential client has second thoughts or something comes up and quickly demands their money be sent back by wire. The check is returned to the bank as “counterfeit”. If the attorney complies with the request and wires the funds back, the attorney will ultimately be held responsible and will have to pay the money out of their account.

Protecting Yourself

In order to protect yourself from wire transfer fraud, there are several things that you will need to keep in mind. One of the most important things is that you should only deal with local people when selling something or taking a payment. If someone is contacting you from overseas, you should forget about doing business with them. If you do business with someone locally, you will be able to go to their bank and make sure that a check has cleared before moving forward. In addition to this, it would most likely be in your best interest to avoid any requests that ask you to wire money.

Fraud Resources

FTC Consumer Identity Theft Site
“This website is a one-stop national resource to learn about the crime of identity theft. It provides detailed information to help you deter, detect, and defend against identity theft.”

"How Not to Get Hooked by the 'Phishing' Scam"

"Internet Pirates Are Trying to Steal Your Personal Financial Information"

FDIC
For more information on how to protect yourself from identity theft and the steps you can take to safeguard your computers and personal information, review the online educational tool on the FDIC's Web site.

FakeChecks.org
Learn More About Fake Check Scams at fakechecks.org

Don't Get Ripped Off: Tips from the FBI (pdf)

Looks Too Good To Be True.com
This website was developed to arm you with information so you don't fall victim to Internet scam artists.