Identity Theft - Identity theft occurs when someone uses personal information, such as an account number, social security number, or name, without ones knowledge or consent to commit fraud or other crimes.

- Safeguard your financial information, such as account numbers and social security number. Never give out the above information unless you know the person or organization that is requesting the informaion. Farmers Bank will not contact you asking for verificatiuon of account numbers, social security numbers, passwords, etc.

- Report lost or stolen checks and credit/debit cards immediately.

- Notify your bank of any suspicious phone inquiries or emails asking for personal information, such as account numbers, pins, social security numbers, etc. Once again, the Farmers Bank will not contact you asking for verificatiuon of account numbers, social security numbers, passwords, etc.

- If any of your bills included questionable items, contact the company and investigate immediately. Often this is the first sign that identity theft has occurred.

- Phishing - a means of using e-mail or malicious websites to solicit personal infomation. Attackers send emails seemingly from a reputable credit card company or financial institution that request account information. The email often suggest that there is a problem with the account asking the customer to respond back with the account information. If the customer responds back with the information, attackers can us it to gain access to the customers personal accounts.

- Spoofing - web spoofing is when an attacker creates a "shadow copy" of a legitimate website link. Access to the "shadow" website is connected to the attacker's machine, usually received from an email, allowing the attacker to monitor the customers activity, including password and account number information. An attacker can monitor the customers activity, therefore allowing them to gain unauthorized access personal information.

- Pharming - pharming is similar to spoofing. Pharming occurs " in the background". Customers are lead to belive that they are accessing a legitimate website and often enter personal account information which is being montiored by the attackers.

- Mail Theft and Dumpster Diving - Mail theft occurs when attackers seek unattended and/or unlocked mailboxes with the purpose to steal personal information, such as bank account statements, credit card accounts, check orders, etc. The above mentioned forms can be used by an attacker to steal one's identity. Dumpster diving is similar to mail theft in that attackers will search trash cans and dumpsters in search of personal information, such as account numbers, social security numbers, blank credit card approval forms, etc. Destroying or shredding documents with personal information before throwing the items away is a good way to protect one's identity.

- Social Engineering - Social Engineering is a term used to describe how attackers use social skills, such as posing as a telphone repair man, salesman, or electrician, to obtain and gather personal information. An attacker will pose as a trusted person and try to gather information, such as account numbers, social security numbers to use without the customers knowledge. Being aware of any maintanence repairs and verifing identification is a good way to protect yourself from the threat of being a victim to social engineering.

- Privacy Policies - We the bank instill privacy policies to protect your personal and financial information. These policies are enforced and training is provided reguarly to employess to protect you the customer.

- Internal Confidentiality - Nonpublic information about you the customer is limited only to employess who need to know the information. This is used only to provide you the customer with our products and services.

- Information Security - Keeping your financial information secure is one of the banks most important responsiblity. The bank maintains physical, electronic, and procedural safegaurds to protect our customer information.

- A FDIC on-line tool is available to help educate consumers how to better protect their computers and themselves from identity theft, and steps to take if they have been victimized. The presentation: Don’t Be an On-Line Victim: How to Guard Against Internet Thieves and Electronic Scams is on the FDIC’s website at www.fdic.gov/consumers/consumer/index.html.