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Frauds and Scams

Be on the alert. Stay informed. Click here for fraud resources that will help keep you informed.

• Cyber Crime

• Identity Theft

• Phishing

• SMishing

• Unsolicited Text Messages

• Vishing

Beware of Account Takeover Fraud

Account takeover fraud occurs when cybercriminals gain access to your online accounts and use them to withdraw money, make purchases or extract information they can sell or use to access your other accounts. Potential targets of account takeover fraud include social media, email accounts and accounts you use to shop or handle bank and credit card transactions.

How do criminals get access to your account information?

Fraudsters can buy stolen credentials off the dark web and use them to access your accounts. Data breaches are a prime source of data on the dark web. Criminals may also use malware, phishing, or other methods of identity theft to obtain your login and password information. Once they have credentials, they may attempt stuffing, where the login and password from one site is used to try to log in to others.

What do fraudsters do with stolen accounts?

Once criminals gain access to your accounts, they may do a number of things:

Order a new card from your credit card company and use it to make purchases

• Buy a new smartphone from your mobile phone carrier

• Make a payment to a fraudulent company from your bank account

• Open a new bank account in your name

• Place orders on a shopping or restaurant delivery site

• Redirect unemployment benefits

• Access and steal personally identifiable information

• Change account information, including your phone number, email, home address or login and password

• Use the information they obtain to access other accounts

• Sell the account information on the dark web

For all the problems account takeover can create, it can be difficult to detect. Often, criminals take the extra step of changing your account preferences so you don’t receive notifications that might otherwise tip you off that something is amiss. Pay attention to password change notifications and other account alerts as they come in before fraudsters have the chance to disable them. If you are notified of activity you don’t recognize, look onto it right away.

How can you protect yourself from account takeover?

• Following best practices for reducing the risk of identity theft is a good place to start:

• Be meticulous with passwords. Hackers will be more successful with their attacks if you tend to use the same logins and passwords on multiple sites. Ideally, you should have a unique, secure password for every online account.

• Use multifactor authentication. Simply setting up security on your accounts to send a one-time passcode by email or text can help thwart an account takeover. Adding biometrics like face recognition or fingerprints can also be effective. Multifactor authentication is not available on all accounts, but it is available on many critical ones. Activate it wherever you can.

• Safeguard your credit. Even before you fall victim to account takeover, you might want to consider placing a credit report fraud alert or credit freeze with all three credit bureaus. With a fraud alert, credit bureaus will ask creditors to take steps to verify your identity before issuing credit in your name. A credit freeze prevents potential creditors from viewing your credit report and scores.

• Consider identity theft protection.

What to do if your account has been hacked.
If you discover your account has been hacked, follow these basic steps for dealing with account fraud and identity theft:

• Report the fraud to the company or agency involved. You may need to close your account or upgrade your account security.

• Check your accounts. Assess whether your other accounts have been affected, especially those that use the same password.

• Change your passwords. Update account information for the affected account and any others that share passwords with it. You may also want to take this opportunity to change and upgrade your password across all accounts.

• Consider your credit. You may want to freeze your credit or add a fraud alert to your credit reports and activate credit monitoring.

Free Credit Report

Under federal law, you are entitled to obtain a free copy of your credit report once a year from each of the three major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion).

To obtain a FREE Credit Report:
www.annualcreditreport.com: (877) 322-8228

Learn more about credit reporting agencies:
www.equifax.com: (800) 685-1111
www.experian.com: (888) 397-3742
www.transunion.com: (800) 888-4213

For more information visit: www.ftc.gov/credit