Florence Bank
Because we value you as a customer, protecting your privacy and ensuring the safety of your online bank accounts is our top priority. In order to educate our customers on how to make online transactions safer and more secure, we have gathered a variety of resources and implemented policies to make sure that your online experience is a protected one.
Be safe. If you believe your Florence Bank account has been compromised, please contact us immediately so that we can take appropriate action. Florence bank will NEVER call or email you and ask you to provide your login credentials.
Account Authentication and Online Banking
Florence Bank follows specific rules for electronic transactions issued by the Federal Reserve Board. Known as Regulation E, the rules cover a variety of situations revolving around transfers made electronically. Under the consumer protections provided under Reg E, you can recover Internet banking losses according to how soon you detect and report them.
If you notice any suspicious activity within your account or experience security-related events, please contact us immediately.
Understanding the risks and knowing how fraudsters might trick you is a critical step in protecting yourself online. You can make your computer safer by installing and updating regularly your:
- Anti-virus software
- Anti-malware programs
- Firewalls on your computer
- Operating system patches and updates
FFIEC studies have shown that there have been significant changes in the threat landscape in recent years. As a result, online account takeovers and unauthorized funds transfers have risen substantially each year since 2005, particularly with respect to commercial accounts, representing losses of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Business Risk Assessment and Layer Security
Florence Bank joins FFIEC and the financial regulatory agencies in strongly urging business account holders to conduct internal assessments to ensure the highest level of security possible for your transactions. To ensure the safety and security of your account, we urge business account holders to:
- Conduct periodic assessments of your internal controls
- Use layered security for system administrators
- Initiate enhanced controls for high-dollar transactions
- Provide increased levels of security as transaction risks increase
- Offer customers multi-factor authentication
In addition to urging business account holders to conduct additional assessments, Florence Bank also uses both single and multi-factor authentication to protect your account. Whenever increased risk to your transaction security might warrant it, we have additional verification procedures such as:
- Fraud detection and monitoring
- Dual customer authorization
- Out-of-wallet challenge questions for high risk transactions
- Transaction value thresholds
- Internet protocol reputation based tools
- Polices and practices for addressing customer devices
- Account maintenance controls
If you notice suspicious activity within your account or experience security-related events, please contact us immediately.
Online Safety Resources
Understanding the risks and knowing how fraudsters might trick you is a critical step in protecting yourself online. You can make your computer safer by installing and updating regularly your:
- Anti-virus software
- Anti-malware programs
- Firewalls on your computer
- Operating system patches and updates
For more ways to learn about online safety and security, visit these websites:
Report Fraud
If you suspect that your Florence Bank account has been compromised, contact us at 413-586-1300 or reportfraud@florencebank.com immediately.
Compromised System
Warning signs visible to a business or consumer customer that their system/network may have compromised include:
- Inability to log into online banking (thieves could be blocking customer access so the customer won't see the theft until the criminals have control of the money)
- Dramatic loss of computer speed
- Changes in the way things appear on the screen
- Computer locks up so the user is unable to perform any functions
- Unexpected rebooting or restarting of the computer
- Unexpected request for a one time password (or token) in the middle of an online session
- Unusual pop-up messages, especially a message in the middle of a session that says the connection to the bank system is not working (system unavailable, down for maintenance, etc.)
- New or unexpected toolbars and/or icons
- Inability to shut down or restart the computer
- Flooded email account
Types of Fraud
Internet fraud is the use of Internet services or software with Internet access to defraud victims or to otherwise take advantage of them. Internet crime schemes steal millions of dollars each year from victims and continue to plague the Internet through various methods. Several high-profile methods include the following:
Phishing – The act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft. This also includes more targeted attacks such as spear phishing and whaling.
Vishing – The telephone equivalent of phishing. Vishing is the act of using the telephone to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft.
Spamming – Electronic junk mail or junk newsgroup postings.
Spoofing – A technique used to gain unauthorized access to computers, whereby the intruder sends messages to a computer with an IP address indicating that the message is coming from a trusted host.
Ransomware - a type of malicious software designed to block access to a computer system until a sum of money is paid.
ATM Skimming - A method used by criminals to capture data from the magnetic stripe on the back of an ATM card. Devices used are smaller than a deck of cards and are often fastened in close proximity to, or over the top of the ATM's factory-installed card reader. ATM skimming is a world-wide problem.
Debit Card Fraud - Debit card fraud occurs when a criminal gains access to a customer’s debit card number and, in some cases, PIN, to make unauthorized purchases and/or withdraw cash from the customer’s account.
Smishing - A compound of 'phishing' and 'SMS'. SMiShing (SMS phishing) is a type of a phishing attack where mobile phone users receive text messages containing a Web site hyperlink, which, if clicked would download a Trojan horse to the mobile phone.