Here at Northern Star Credit Union, your financial wellness is important to us, and that includes keeping you, your money, and your identifying information safe.

How to Avoid Being a Victim of Phishing Attack

• Be suspicious of unsolicited phone calls, visits, or email messages from individuals asking about financial and confidential information.
• Do not reveal personal or financial information in email, and do not respond to email solicitations for this information. This includes clicking on or following links sent in email.
• If you are unsure whether an email request is legitimate, try to verify it by contacting the entity directly, by another means, such as the phone. Do not use contact information given in the email.
• Install and maintain anti-virus software, firewalls, and email filters to reduce some of this traffic.
• Take advantage of any anti-phishing features offered by your email client and web browser.
• Use multi-factor authentication.

What to Do if You Are a Victim of Identity Theft

• Contact one of the three major credit bureaus immediately to request a fraud alert, which places a notice on your credit report that you may have been the victim of fraud or identity theft. This alert encourages creditors to take extra steps to confirm your identity before completing a request for credit. One bureau will report the information to the other two, and your credit report will be mailed to you for review. The renewable fraud alert will be placed in your credit reports for one year.
• Contact Northern Star Credit Union and any other financial institutions where you hold accounts, and immediately close all accounts that have been compromised
• Contact local law enforcement authorities and file an identity theft report
• Check with your local post office to see if any unauthorized change-of-address requests have been filed for you

Visit the Federal Trade Commission’s Identity Theft website for more detailed information on how to recover from identity theft

For additional resources visit the Scams and Fraud page or the FTC Consumer Advice page both hosted by the US Government