Consumer Safety Information
PHISHING ALERT
Recently, thousands of fraudulent emails have been broadcast to the general public that claim to come from Pacific Trust Bank. This is another "phishing" attempt to get your personal financial information.
Protect yourself and your identity by not giving out your personal information
“Phishing” is an online scam that hopes you’ll bite and give out personal information that can be used to steal your identity. You may receive an email that looks as if it came from Pacific Trust Bank and includes a message that encourages you to link to a fraudulent site that looks similar to Pacific Trust’s web site.
Sadly, these phishing scams occur often and are aimed at customers of all financial institutions, including Pacific Trust. It is very important to remember that Pacific Trust Bank, and other security-conscious financial institutions, will never send you an email asking you for confidential information.
Phony emails can originate from anywhere in the world. They’ll often use legitimate looking “From” email addresses, logos and links. Remember, they are trying to get you to take immediate action without thinking about the consequences.
Currently, there are two basic types of Internet phishing schemes:
- An email asks you to provide personal account information online. The email links to a false web site that's been constructed to resemble that of your financial institution, where you are told to verify certain information.
- An email asks you to provide personal account information by calling a fraudulent phone number. When you call, you're asked to provide such things as your card numbers and PINs to verify their information.
Pacific Trust Bank will never request personal and financial information via email, and we maintain state-of-the-art security for our online banking systems.
In fact, our online banking includes the latest in sign-on protection for our customers. The two-way security system allows you to know you are signing on to our web site and we know that it is you accessing your accounts. Your unique Passmark photo and phrase are recognizable to you at each sign-on. If it’s not your personally-selected photo and pass-phrase, don’t sign on – contact Pacific Trust Bank directly at (877) 441-BANK.
Pacific Trust Bank strongly urges all of its customers and all consumers to NEVER give out personal and financial information to anyone or any business asking for it via email. It is always prudent to contact the financial institution directly, rather than clicking on the link in a suspect email, to verify any request.
Again, if you receive emails asking for personal and financial information, you should consider them fraudulent and contact the financial institution directly using a known valid phone number or email address. Please forward suspect phishing emails allegedly coming from Pacific Trust Bank to us at mail@pacifictrustbank.com, and a member of our staff will review the email.
|
