Alerts

EQUIFAX - Cybersecurity Incident & Important Consumer Information

September 18, 2017

Dear Customer:

Recently, Equifax, one of the three national consumer credit reporting agencies, announced a major data breach. This breach affects approximately 143 million Americans. This is what we know according to Equifax: the data breach occurred May – July 2017, and the information stolen includes consumers’ personally identifiable information, including names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, addresses and, in some cases, driver’s license numbers. Approximately 209,000 credit card numbers and dispute documents with personally identifiable information for approximately 182,000 consumers were also stolen. There is no evidence of unauthorized access to consumers’ credit reporting databases.

To be clear, Pike National Bank was not compromised and your information was not stolen from our bank. However, Pike National Bank takes the security of our customer information very seriously, and we are providing you with the information we know about this massive breach and the steps you can take to protect your personally identifiable information if you so desire. Following this unprecedented breach, we are also asking our customers to be extra vigilant and report any suspicious activity in your Pike National Bank accounts to Account Services by calling 601-684-7575 ext. 400.

Equifax has established a website that informs consumers if they may be affected by the breach, provides additional information on the breach, and offers complimentary identity theft protection and credit file monitoring. This information is available at www.equifaxsecurity2017.com. To protect your identity and personal information, Pike National Bank strongly encourages our customers to take the actions noted below.

  • You should also contact the credit reporting agencies to notify them of any suspected fraud or identity theft.

If you believe you are the victim of identity theft, contact your local law enforcement office and/or your state attorney general. Finally, you may also want to consider reviewing information about recovering from identity theft, which is available from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at https://www.identitytheft.gov/ or by calling 1-877-IDTHEFT (1-877-438-4338). The FTC also offers general information to protect your online presence at https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/topics/privacy-identity-online-security.

Equifax has established a dedicated toll-free number to answer questions you may have about the Equifax data breach and its effect on your personally identifiable information. You may call them at 866-447-7559.

Sincerely,

Pike National Bank


Reminder about Fraud Prevention

The best fraud prevention available is you! Learn to identify fraud so that you can protect yourself!


Scammers are becoming more and more creative.  Be on the lookout for people who are giving you a

get-rich-quick opportunity, or charities you’ve never heard of.  If it seems too good to be true, it probably is!

Another sign of fraud is if someone offers to deposit money into your account (or you receive a check in the mail to be deposited), and then asks you to withdraw that money and send it back to them to by a prepaid Visa card or wire. By the time the money they sent comes back as fraud, they have your money and you are responsible for the bill! 

Remember: The goal of fraud is to take your money! It is always harder to get money back than it is to keep it in the first place!

Be extremely cautious about giving any of your personal information out over the phone, especially if they called you first! Personal information includes your bank routing and account numbers, your online banking user ID and password, and any other unique information like your date of birth or Social Security numbers.

If you think something may be fraud, ask us! Count on your bankers at PNB to help you

identify fraud and stop it!

 

Our Fraud Prevention Service

In our continuing efforts to keep your accounts secure, we've improved our alert system for potential fraud. If suspected fraudulent transactions are detected on your debit card, the following efforts to contact you will be made. 

Here's how it works:

  1. When potential fraud is detected, you will receive an automatic email notification from Pike National Bank, with the option to reply "fraud" or "no fraud."
  2. One minute after the email, you will receive a text alert from #32874 between 7am and 9pm, which also has the "fraud" or "no fraud" option. The text message alerts will only be received by customers who use the following cell phone carriers: AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, Boost, Virgin Mobile, and T-Mobile.
  3. If you do not respond within five minutes of the text alert, you will receive an automatic phone call to confirm or deny fraud .

Remember - our messages will never ask for your PIN or account number.

*The phone number for our Fraud Center has changed to 1-800-417-4592 . If you add this number to your phone contacts and label it "Fraud Center," it will display whenever you get a call from this number.


Debit Card Monitoring

In an effort to better detect fraudulent activity on PNB’s customers’ debit cards, we have engaged the services of a Fraud Center to monitor debit card activity 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. With this enhanced monitoring, you may be contacted between 8:00 am and 9:00 pm to verify any potential fraudulent activity.

They WILL NOT ask for any personal information. They will disclose that they are calling on behalf of Pike National Bank and will only ask for verification of the transaction in question.


Mobile Text Alerts

Add an additional layer of protection to your account! Enabling texts al erts will notify you of “real time” transa ctions on your debit card. Contact us or click here for more details.