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How to Identify Online Fraud
Suspicious Email, Fraudulent Web sites, Spyware, Viruses and Pop-up Advertising

If you should ever receive an email that appears to be suspicious, do not reply to it or click on the link it provides. Simply delete it. To report a suspicious email that uses F&M Bank's name, you can forward it to fraud@fmbonline.com. (If you have general questions about the bank or your accounts, please go to Contact Us.)

The most common types of online fraud are called phishing and spoofing. Criminals send these phony email messages or direct someone to a fraudulent Web site for one goal, to steal personal and financial information.

• Phishing, as in fishing for confidential information, is a scam that encompasses fraudulently obtaining and using an individual's personal or financial information. In a typical case, the consumer receives an e-mail appearing to originate from a financial institution, government agency or other entity that requests personal or financial information. The e-mail often indicates that the consumer should give immediate attention to the situation described by clicking on a link. The provided link appears to be the Web site of the financial institution, government agency or other entity. However, in “phishing” scams, the link is not to an official Web site, but rather to a phony Web site. Once inside that Web site, the consumer may be asked to provide a Social Security number, account numbers, passwords or other information used to identify the consumer, such as the maiden name of the consumer's mother or the consumer's place of birth. When the consumer provides the information, those perpetrating the fraud can begin to access consumer accounts or assume the person's identity.
   
• Pharming refers to the redirection of an individual to an illegitimate Web site through technical means. For example, when routinely logging into a Web site, you may be redirected to an illegitimate Web site instead of your intended Web site.

Pharming can occur by Static domain name spoofing: The “pharmer” (the person or entity committing the fraud) attempts to take advantage of slight misspellings in domain names to trick users into inadvertently visiting the pharmer's Web site. For example, a pharmer may redirect a user to anybnk.com instead of anybank.com, the site the user intended to access.

Pharming can also occur with the use of Malicious software (Malware): Viruses and “Trojans” (latent malicious code or devices that secretly capture data) on a consumer's personal computer may intercept the user's request to visit a particular site, such as anybank.com, and redirect the user to the site that the pharmer has set up.

Spyware and Viruses

Spyware and viruses are both malicious programs that are loaded onto your computer without your knowledge. The goal of these programs is to capture or destroy information, to ruin the performance of your computer, or to bombard you with advertising.

Viruses spread by infecting computers and then replicating. Spyware disguises itself as a legitimate application and embeds itself into your computer, to monitor your activity and collect information.

Pop-up Advertisements

Pop-ups are those annoying ads that pop up in a separate browser window. Click on one of these pop-ups, and there's a chance that you're also downloading spyware or “adware.

There are people who create pop-up ads that look like they come from a respected financial institution and ask you to enter personal financial information. Just remember that F&M Bank and most other financial institutions would never ask you to verify personal financial information in pop-ups.

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