Security Information

October 2009

Protect Yourself from Phishing Scams

At Visalia Community Bank, we are committed to protecting your financial interests with secure technology and by educating you with "best practices" for staying secure on the Internet. As a Visalia Community Bank Internet Banking customer, we want to make you aware of the increasing number of "phishing" attacks against financial institutions within the last couple of weeks.

"Phishing" is a type of fraud where an e-mail or text message asks you, often with a sense of urgency, to click a link to update or confirm your sensitive personal information, such as your account numbers, card numbers, social security/tax identification numbers, passwords, or PINs. The link goes to a fake or "spoof" website designed to look like a legitimate company.

In the most recent attacks mass text messages and automated phone calls are being sent out to card holders to prompt them to enter their personal and account information.

Example text message:

From: Commercial Bank of Texas

Alert: Your card has been deactivated.

Please contact us at: (936) 622-6016 to reactivate your card.

We want to make you aware of the fact that Visalia Community Bank does not use text messaging to contact our customers. If you receive a text message that says "from Visalia Community Bank" do not respond to the message.

Visalia Community Bank will never request or ask you to update or confirm sensitive information via an e-mail or text message.

Visalia Community Bank does have a service where you will be called to validate the legitimacy of transactions if we suspect fraudulent activity on your Visalia Community Bank Check Card. However, you will not be required to provide any information to the caller but instead asked to verify the validity of certain transactions.

If you ever receive a suspicious e-mail, text message or phone call supposedly from Visalia Community Bank please contact the Bank immediately at (559)625-8733.