Fraud Prevention

• Treat Zelle like cash. Only send money to those you know and trust.
• Always double check you have the person’s correct information before the transaction, and that you know who they are.
• Remember never to share your personal information (like your account number, banking logins, or passwords).

• Always be extremely cautious when sending a wire to ensure you know the recipient. For more information about wire fraud, click here.

External transfers are a great way to manage your money between different financial institutions, all within the digital banking app. Make sure to use the following steps when adding an external account to avoid fraud. 

• Only add accounts where you are listed as the account holder. 
• Make sure you have double checked the account and routing number to ensure they are correct.
• Never add someone else's account to your digital banking with external transfers.

• Protect your passwords and use two-factor authentication, or an authenticator app. This will prevent hackers from accessing your personal information. 
• Be careful when being offered a job on the internet. Typically in these types of scams, you receive a large check for doing a job. Then, when you deposit the check and spend the funds the check returns. 
• Always use caution when using Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, and other resell websites. Scammers will offer you more than the asking price for an item, typically to cover the cost of shipping or as what appears to be an accident. Then they ask you to return the funds.

• If you believe you have been a victim of a scam, you can report it to www.ic3.gov which is monitored by the FBI.

• It's important to be cautious about what checks you are depositing into your account, never deposit a check if you are not aware of the source, and know it is legitimate. 
• No one will ever need your digital banking username and password to set up direct deposits.
• Someone sending you a legitimate check will never ask you to send a portion of the funds back to them, or to purchase gift cards on their behalf.

Phishing is a type of cyberattack where malicious individuals or groups attempt to trick you into revealing sensitive information, such as passwords, credit card numbers, or personal details. They often use deceptive emails, text messages, or websites that appear legitimate to lure you into providing this information. Classic phishing attempts typically have a link to click, misspelled words, and/or omitted words. For example, it may say Heritage Credit Union instead of Heritage Federal Credit Union.