Fraud Information and Tips

Protect Yourself from Identity Theft

If you’d like to learn about

• Securing Your Personal Information
• Common Scams
• Active Duty Alerts
• Credit Freezes
• Child Identity Theft
• And More

Visit https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/identity-theft-and-online-security

Respond to Identity Theft

If you suspect identity theft, please take the following steps as applicable

• Notify PointBank by calling us at 940-686-7000.
• Review the activity on all of your accounts: checking, savings, credit cards, loans
• Close accounts that have been breached
• Change your online banking user name and password
• Contact the credit reporting companies
  • Equifax 1-800-525-6285 or www.equifax.com
  • Experian 1-888-397-3742 or www.experian.com
  • TransUnion 1-800-680-7289 or www.transunion.com
• Order your credit reports
• Place a ‘fraud alert’ on your credit file
• Contact other creditors
  • Credit card companies
  • Banks, lenders and other financial institutions
• File Reports with:
  • Law Enforcement
  • Federal Trade Commission (FTC) 1-877-ID-Theft
  • Postal Service https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov
  • Social Security Fraud Hotline 1-800-269-0271
  • Department of Public Safety https://www.dps.texas.gov/section/driver-license/identity-theft-information-guide
  • Lost or Stolen Passports 1-877-487-2778

Visit https://identitytheft.gov/ for more information, resources, and tools.

Tips for Safe Mobile Banking

Using a smartphone, “tablet” computer or other mobile device to manage your finances can be convenient and help you monitor your money from practically anywhere. At the same time, it’s important to take steps to protect your account information.

Be proactive in securing the mobile device. Depending on what security options are available on your device, create a “strong” password consisting of unusual combinations of upper- and lower-case letters, numbers and symbols and periodically change it.

Don’t give that password or PIN to anyone, do not write it down anywhere and never leave your mobile device unattended. Be sure to enable the “time-out” or “auto-lock” feature that secures your mobile device when it is left unused for a certain period of time.

Be careful about where and how you conduct transactions. Don’t use an unsecured Wi-Fi network, such as those found at coffee shops, because fraud artists might be able to access the information you are transmitting or viewing. Also, don’t send account numbers or other sensitive information through regular e-mails or text messages because those are not necessarily secure.

Take additional precautions in case your device is lost or stolen. Check with your wireless provider in advance to find out about features that enable you to remotely erase content or turn off access to your device or account if you lose your phone. Quickly contact your financial services providers to let them know about the loss or theft of your device. Notifying your bank quickly will help prevent or resolve problems with unauthorized transactions.

Research any application (“app”) before downloading it. Just because the name of an app resembles the name of your bank — or of another company you’re familiar with — don’t assume that it is the official one of that bank or company. It could be a fraudulent app designed to trick users into believing that the service is legitimate.

The best place to download an app is from the official website of the bank or company that you are doing business with or from a legitimate app store. Also, if possible, be sure to protect your financial apps, ideally with a password that is different from the password for your device.

Be on guard against unsolicited e-mails or text messages appearing to link to a financial institution’s website. Those could be “phishing” messages containing some sort of urgent request (such as a warning that you need to “verify” bank account or other personal information) or an amazing offer (one that is “too good to be true”) designed to lead you to a fake website controlled by thieves.