Despite your best efforts to manage the flow of your personal information or to keep it to yourself, skilled identity thieves may use a variety of methods to gain access to your date. They obtain information in a variety of ways, including:

• Stealing records or information from businesses or other institutions while on the job

• Hacking electronic records

• They may steal your mail, including bank and credit card statements, credit card offers, new checks, and tax information.

• They may rummage through your trash at businesses, or public trash dumps in a practice know as "dumpster diving"

• They may get your credit reports by abusing their employer's authorized access to them, or by posing as a landlord, employer, or someone else who may have a legal right to access your report.

• They may steal your wallet or purse

• They may complete a "change of address form" to divert your mail to another location

• They may steal personal information they find in your home

• They may steal personal information from you through email or phone by posing as legitimate companies and claiming that you have a problem with your account. This practice is know as "phishing" online, or pretexting by phone.

You can help protect your identity and fight identity theft, here's how:

1. Never provide your personal information in response to an unsolicited request. Whether it’s over the phone or Internet, don’t do it. If you don’t initiate the communication, you should not provide any information. Marine Credit Union will never call or email to request your personal information.
   

2. For your safety, never click on or follow a link in an email. Many times fraudulent emails will link you to websites that are constructed to appear very similar or identical to the company's actual website. Never click on or follow these links! Never provide personal information by following a link in an unsolicited email. Start by typing in a company's web address, that you know or have verified, and follow the links from there. Links may also contain viruses that could contaminate your computer.
   

3. Do not be intimidated by an e-mail or caller who suggest dire consequences if you do not immediately provide or verify financial information.
   

4. If you believe the contact may be legitimate, contact the financial institution yourself. The key is that you should initiate contact, using contact information that you know and have verified, including websites, email addresses and phone numbers. Go to the company's website by typing in the site address directly or using a page you have previously book marked, instead of a link provided in the email. Or, call the company directly.
   

5. Never provide passwords or PINs over the phone or in response to an unsolicited Internet request. A financial institution, including Marine Credit Union, will never ask you to verify this information by phone or through an email link.
   

6. Review your account statements regularly to ensure accuracy.  If your account statement is late in arriving, call to find out why.  At Marine Credit Union you can also utilize our Home Banking serve to periodically review your account activity online.

If you fall victim. 
If you fall victim to an attack, act immediately to protect yourself. Alert your credit union and other financial institutions of the situation immediately. If you have disclosed sensitive information in a phishing attack, you should also contact one of the three major credit bureaus and discuss whether you need to place a fraud alert on your credit files, which will help prevent thieves from opening a new account in your name. Monitor your credit files and account statements closely. The following is contact information for each credit bureau's fraud division:

Report all suspicious contacts to the Federal Trade Commission through the Internet at www.consumer.gov/idtheft, or by calling 1-877-IDTHEFT.

*Information provided by the National Credit Union Administration, for more information visit www.ncua.gov; and the Federal Trade Commission for more information visit www.consumer.gov/idtheft.