Fraud Resources

At Highland Bank, we’re making an important investment to help us mitigate the risk of cyber threats and keep our customers’ financial and personal information safe. In order to better serve our customers, we are pleased to announce that we have transitioned our website domain to HIGHLAND.BANK.

.BANK is a trusted, verified, more secure and easily identifiable internet location for our Online banking customers who conduct their personal and business banking with us.

How .BANK benefits you:

• Enhanced Security & Verification Requirements for the domain registrars
• Reduces the risk of cyber threats

We are delighted to adopt .BANK for our Online Customers. The increased value of our new HIGHLAND.BANK domain enables us to build a high-trust environment for our customers that can provide a safer barrier against cyber-crime. To watch a video about what .BANK does, click here!

Equifax, one of the three major credit bureaus, experienced a massive data breach. The hackers accessed people’s names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and, in some instances, driver’s license numbers. They also stole credit card numbers for about 209,000 people and dispute documents with personal identifying information for about 182,000 people.

If you have a credit report, there’s a good chance it was. Go to a special website set up by Equifax to find out: https://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com/. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on “Potential Impact,” enter some personal information and the site will tell you if you’ve been affected. Be sure you’re on a secure network (not public wi-fi) when you submit sensitive data over the internet.

Identity Theft occurs when someone obtains another person’s personal identifying information, without lawful authority, for economic gain or criminal purposes.

Stay alert for signs of identity theft, including:

• Accounts you didn’t open and debts on your accounts that you can’t explain.
• Fraudulent or inaccurate information on your credit reports, including accounts and personal information, like your Social Security number, address(es), name or initials, and employers.
• Failing to receive bills or other mail. Follow up with creditors if your bills don’t arrive on time. A missing bill could mean an identity thief has taken over your account and changed your billing address to cover his tracks.
• Receiving credit cards that you didn’t apply for.
• Being denied credit or being offered less favorable credit terms, like a high interest rate, for no apparent reason.
• Getting calls or letters from debt collectors or businesses about merchandise or services you didn’t buy.

Learn about Highland Bank’s ID Theft Procedure »

“Phishing” (as in ‘fishing’ for confidential information) is a general term for criminals’ creation and use of emails and websites, designed to look like emails and websites of well-known legitimate businesses, financial institutions, and government agencies, in order to deceive internet users into disclosing their bank and financial account information or other personal data such as usernames and passwords. The “phishers” then take that information and use it for criminal purposes, such as identity theft and fraud.

• Avoid becoming a victim of Phishing:
• Watch and closely monitor your email for phishing and fraudulent links
• Don’t click on links within emails that ask for your personal information
• Be aware that phishing can also happen by phone, scammers can make the same false claims and ask for your personal information over the phone.
• Protect your computer with spam filters, anti-virus and anti-spyware software, and a firewall, and keep them up to date.
• Only open email attachments if you’re expecting them and know what they contain.
• Be suspicious if someone contacts you unexpectedly and asks for your personal information.

If you’ve been hooked by a Phisher, act immediately.

• Report phishing even if you aren’t a victim. If you suspect an email or website is fraudulent, please notify the company or agency that the phisher was impersonating.
• You may also contact the Internet Crime Complaint Center, a partnership between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center, at www.ic3.gov
• If you receive an Alert from Highland Bank or suspect phishing, contact Customer Service during normal business hours at 952-858-4888 or toll-free 1–877–457–1305.

Now that digital devices are so common in our daily lives that we often take them for granted, smart cyber security practices are essential. Knowing what your risks are and incorporating these basic will help protect you from cyber thieves.

Computer Safety And Security

• Avoid downloading programs from unknown sources.
• Keep your computer operating system up to date to ensure the highest level of protection.
• Install a personal firewall on your computer.
• Install, run, and keep anti-virus and other software updated.
• Turn your computer off completely when you are finished using it — don’t leave it in sleep mode.

Internet Tips

• Use secure websites for transactions and shopping. Shop with merchants you know and trust. Make sure internet purchases are secured with encryption to protect your account information. Look for “secure transaction” symbols like a lock symbol in the lower right-hand corner of your web browser window, or “https://…” in the address bar of the website. The “s” indicates “secured” and means the web page uses encryption.
• Always log off from online banking and any website after using your credit or debit card, or other sensitive information. If you cannot log off, quit your browser to prevent any potential unauthorized access to your account information.
• Close your browser when you’re not using the internet.

Password Tips

• Do not use your Social Security number as a username or password. Change your usernames and passwords regularly and use combinations of letters, numbers, and special characters such as # and @. Do not use your online banking username and passwords as credentials for other online accounts.
• Protect your online passwords. Don’t write them down or share them with anyone.
• Protect your answers to security questions. Select questions and provide answers that are easy for you to remember, but hard for others to guess. Do not write down your security questions or answers or share them with anyone. If you have selected security questions on other websites, avoid using the same questions.

Email Tips

• Be wary of suspicious emails. Never open attachments, click on links, or respond to emails from suspicious or unknown senders.
• If you receive a suspicious email, do not respond or provide any information.
• If you think you may have responded to a phishing email with personal or account information, contact Customer Service during normal business hours at 952-858-4888 or toll-free 1–877–457–1305.
• Conduct online banking activities on secure computers only. Public computers (computers at internet cafes, copy centers, etc.) should be used with caution, due to shared use and possible tampering.
• Online banking activities and viewing or downloading documents (statements, etc.) should only be conducted on a computer you know to be safe and secure.
• Ensure your computer software and plug-ins are current. Before downloading an update to your computer program, first go to the company’s website to confirm the update is legitimate.