Protect yourself from e-mail fraud
E-mail fraud is a growing problem. E-mail fraud is an attempt to steal your personal or financial information by sending you a phony e-mail message. The e-mail message instructs you to provide personal or financial information, either by replying directly or by going to a web site and entering this information. The message might look official; some of these phony e-mails have disguised themselves as messages from a bank or from the FDIC. Don't be fooled -- these messages are not from legitimate companies or organizations.
How can you recognize a fraudulent e-mail message? Here are some general characteristics of these messages:
- The messages do not greet you by name. Instead, they use general greetings such as "Dear Valued Customer".
- The messages may contain typographical errors and poor grammar. The style of writing may not be up to the standard of normal business communication.
- The message instructs you to act now. The message may contain a deadline after which something bad will happen -- for example, "Your account will be closed if you do not reply within three days." The tone of urgency and the possibility of loss are attempts to make you act without thinking too hard about the request for your personal or financial information.
The most important point to understand about e-mail fraud is that legitimate businesses do not send this type of e-mail message. First Ipswich Bank never sends e-mail messages requesting that you provide or update your personal or financial information.
Use these guidelines as you look through your e-mail messages:
- If you receive an e-mail message with a request that you provide personal or financial information, do not provide any information, no matter how "official" the message appears to be.
- If you want to verify whether or not a request is legitimate, contact the company that "sent" the e-mail message. Do not use any contact information in the e-mail message itself; use a reliable source to obtain contact information. You can call the company directly, or you can go to the company's official web site.
- Do not open an e-mail message from someone you do not know.
- Do not open an attachment to an e-mail message unless you are sure the message comes from a trusted source.
If you receive a fraudulent e-mail message that appears to come from First Ipswich Bank, please notify us by contacting our Compliance Department at 1-800-834-0046 or sending an e-mail message to compliance@firstipswich.com .