Online Security & Alerts for Businesses and Other Organizations

ACH or Wire Fraud

What is looks like: You get an email to send an ACH or wire instructions that appears to be from a co-worker, however it’s really a fraudster who has hacked an email account.

How to protect your business: Have a system in place for requesting and confirming an ACH transaction or wire transfer. Ideally, this system would involve more than one person. You could also use a tool like ACH Blocks and Filters to block ACH transactions or set parameters to accept only certain ACH transactions.

Computer Cleaning Scam

What it looks like: You are on your work computer when a message pops up and warns you that your computer is compromised. If you don't act now, your computer will crash. Offering to help, a scammer dials into your computer to try to "fix" the issue, meanwhile gleaming your personal information. Sometimes, the scammers require payment to "fix" the computer.

How to protect yourself: Do not open or click on any computer pop-ups.

Email Compromise

What it looks like: Similar to ACH or wire fraud, you get an email that appears to be from a co-worker or vendor requesting money be sent to a vendor or other contact. Or, the email could ask to update the direct deposit information for your co-worker’s payroll. However, the email is really from a fraudster who has hacked an email account and is looking to dupe you into sending them a payment instead.

How to protect your business: Before you respond to an email requesting a payment, take a moment to review if it’s legitimate: check the from email address for typos or other irregularities, consider if this co-worker is actually working or on vacation (give them a call!), read the email body and look for typos or phrases and wording that this co-worker wouldn’t normally use. In addition, you should have a system in place for requesting and confirming payments that involves more than one person.

Phishing Calls and Texts

What it looks like: You receive or phone call or text message asking you to verify business account or transaction information. The call or text may feel legitimate, but it’s not.

How to protect yourself: Be a skeptic. Before you provide any information, look up the company or person contacting you via a third-party source such as a website or phone book. Call back using the phone number you found to verify the request was legitimate.

Stolen Business Checks

What it looks like: Fraudsters steal your outgoing checks and use them to make purchases.

How to protect your business: If you have outgoing checks, bring them to the post office instead of leaving them in your business mailbox. Check your business accounts daily for fraudulent transactions and alert the bank immediately if you see something suspicious. You can also use a fraud transaction detection service, such as Positive Pay to help prevent these checks, or other fraudulent checks, from hitting your account.

If you notice fraud in the transactions of your business bank account, it is important for you to contact your local banker  the same business day that it posts to your account for the best chance of resolving the issue. When it comes to business fraud, our team has 24 hours to work with the financial institution that presented the fraudulent payment or check to retrieve your lost funds. After 24 hours, it is often difficult to retrieve the lost funds and this process usually involves filing a police report.

For customers who use our ACH debit filter or Positive Pay, make sure to review the fraudulent transaction in your daily exception items report and mark it as an item to be returned due to fraud.

For all other business customers, contact your branch.