Protecting Your Account Pillar Bank

Card Management

Welcome to Managing Your Debit Card!

The downloadable guide will help you navigate and manage your debit card. It includes how-to information and screen shots to help you with the following:

Rename your Card
Manage Alerts – see the separate guide on Managing Alerts
Request a Temporary Spending Limit Increase
Change your Pin
Add a Travel Notification
Enable Automatic On/Off or Turn Card On/Off

Help protect and manage your debit card. For additional help, please contact us.

Digital Banking: Manage Alerts

Set Up and Manage Your Alerts – It’s Easy!

Account Alert Details

Helpful screenshots in the downloadable material shows you how to set up a variety of alerts, which will help you prevent fraud and keep a careful eye on your account. It covers a variety of alerts including how to set up:

Custom Alerts
Bill Pay Alerts
Security Alerts

You choose how to receive alerts whether by text or email – whichever is most convenient for you.

Setting up and managing alerts helps you protect your account. For more information, please contact us.

Cybersecurity Awareness; Know How to Protect Yourself and Your Devices

PERSONAL INFORMATION IS LIKE MONEY. VALUE IT. PROTECT IT.

KNOW THE RED FLAGS

To begin with, if anyone contacts you and insists on payment by a wire transfer or gift card, it’s a scam. End the conversation immediately.

VERIFY TO CLARIFY

Be suspicious of emails, text messages, or phone calls that create a sense of urgency and require you to respond to a crisis or give sensitive information, such as your credit card number or bank account information. Don’t respond immediately. Hang up or walk away from the computer and contact a trusted source to verify the legitimacy of the request.

WHEN IN DOUBT, THROW IT OUT

Links in email, tweets, texts, posts, social media messages and online advertising are the easiest way for cyber criminals to get your sensitive information. Be wary of clicking on links or downloading anything that comes from a stranger or that you were not expecting.

KEEP A CLEAN MACHINE

Keep all software on all internet-connected devices current. These updates not only improve the security of your device, but also improve its functionality. Stop clicking postpone on that update.

Pro Tip: Configure your devices to automatically update or to notify you when an update is available.

LOCK YOUR DEVICES

You lock the front door to your house, and you should do the same with your devices. Require a passcode to unlock your phone or tablet. Securing your devices keeps prying eyes out and can help protect your information in case your devices are lost or stolen.

MAKE A LONG, UNIQUE PASSPHRASE

Length trumps complexity. A strong passphrase is a sentence that is at least 12 characters long. Focus on positive sentences or phrases that you like to think about and are easy to remember. (for example, “IL0veCountryMusic!.”). Everyone can forget a password. Keep a list that’s stored in a safe, secure place away from your computer.

OWN YOUR ONLINE PRESENCE

Every time you sign up for a new account, download a new app, or get a new device, immediately configure the privacy and security settings to your comfort level for information sharing. Regularly check these settings (at least once a year) to make sure they are still configured to your comfort.

SHARE WITH CARE

Be cautious about how much personal information you provide on social networking sites. The more information you post, the easier it may be for a hacker or someone else to use that information to steal your identity, access your data or commit other crimes such as stalking. Just because a website asks you for your address, photo, or mother’s maiden name, doesn’t mean you actually have to answer honestly.

PEOPLE AREN’T ALWAYS WHO THEY SAY THEY ARE ONLINE

Adults of all ages need to be wary of strangers and those appearing to be your friends or loved ones online. It is too easy for criminals to hide their true identity and appear trustworthy. If someone asks to be your friend on a social media platform, only accept their request if you know them. If someone online asks you for money or sensitive information, pick up the phone and call a trusted number. Dating online? Don’t send money or sensitive financial or personal information to anyone you have never met.

Fraud Alert: Look out for SKIMMING at ATMs and gas pump card readers.

What does skimming mean?

A skimmer is a card reader that can be disguised to look like part of an ATM or gas pump card reader. The skimmer attachment collects card numbers and PIN codes, which are then replicated into counterfeit cards. Skimming is the type of fraud that occurs when an ATM/card reader is compromised by a skimmer.

When you slide your card into an ATM/card reader that has a skimmer attached, you’re unwittingly sliding it through the counterfeit reader, which scans and stores all your information from the magnetic strip as well as capturing your PIN from the keypad. This makes skimmers particularly dangerous compared to other forms of card compromise because the collected card data can be used to make ATM cash withdrawals.

How to check for skimmers

The most frequently used methods of skimming are used on the card reader insert area. Before using an ATM, be observant of the following parts of the ATM:

PIN keypad
Card insert slot

When visiting an ATM, check these parts for:

Tape and/or sticky glue residue on any part of the ATM
Bulkiness on the card insert area or the PIN keypad
Anything hanging from the ATM
Wiggle the card slot or keypad for loose-fitting attachments

So how can you spot a skimmer and reduce your risk of card fraud during your travels?

1. Use your eyes: Look before you insert your card.

Before you slide your card in a fuel pump or ATM, take a good look at the keyboard and card reader.

Does anything look different if this is an ATM you’ve used before?

Bad guys can use a 3-D printer to create a new keyboard to put on top of the real one. The keyboard might look different from the rest of the ATM, or the keys could look bigger.

With fuel pumps, is the seal broken? To place a skimmer inside a fuel pump, fraudsters must open the fuel dispenser door to insert the skimmer.

Station employees may place serial-numbered security tape across the dispenser door, so check to see if the tape has been broken, according to NACS, the Association for Convenience & Fuel Retailing. If there’s no tape, check to see if the dispenser door looks as though it has been forced open.

Also, look inside the throat of the card reader to see if you can spot anything hidden there. A skimmer inside a gas pump or ATM can steal the information off the magnetic stripe of your credit card or debit card.

2. Use your fingers: If something doesn’t feel right, move on.

Wiggle the ATM card reader to see if it’s loose. The crooks might place a card reader on top of the existing one.

You should also be wary if it’s hard to insert your credit card or debit card.

Some gas station credit card skimming victims have, in hindsight, remembered that the card reader had a weird feeling, like the slot had been tampered with.

3. Use your phone: Apps now can alert you to possible skimmers.

A free Skimmer Scanner Android app scans for available Bluetooth connections looking for a device with title HC-05. How does it work? If found, the app will attempt to connect using the default password of 1234. Once connected, the letter ‘P’ will be sent. If a response of ‘M’ then there is a very high likelihood there is a skimmer in the Bluetooth range of your phone (5 to 15 feet).

If your smartphone detects a skimmer, use a different pump or go to a different gas station.

How does Bluetooth relate to skimmers?

In the past, bad guys had to return to the the fuel pump or ATM to retrieve skimmers. That’s not always the case now. Thieves have begun to use Bluetooth technology to glean your credit card or debit card information. The crime is called bluesnarfing or blue skimming, and the crooks can sit 100 yards away in their vehicle while credit and debit card information is transmitted to their laptop.

4. Use your common sense: Use fuel pumps and ATMs in safe places.

Avoid gas pumps that are out of sight of the clerk and ATMs in areas with little traffic.

It’s particularly important to be cautious at nonbank ATMs, such as those located at convenience stores or nightclubs.

At banks, on the other hand, security is tighter, with cameras recording transactions and more people coming and going.

At ATMs, always cover the keyboard when you type your PIN. There might be a new brochure box containing literature next to the ATM, which crooks set up to conceal a pinhole camera. They use the camera to record you as you key in your PIN.

*Article above published 6/17/2020.*