Fraud Protection: Beware of Banking Trojans - Money Tip Tuesday

Online security is important, especially when it comes to banking. Here’s what you need to know about banking trojan viruses and how to avoid them.

• Learn more about Norton device protection
• Learn more about BitDefender protection 
• Listen to our Setting up Secure Passwords Money Tip Tuesday for more security information
• Learn more about Triangle's Better Checking account with Identity Theft Protection

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Transcript:

Welcome to Money Tip Tuesday from the Making Money Personal Podcast. 

A banking trojan is a type of malicious virus that attempts to gain access to your bank information by posing as a trustworthy website. What this means is that these websites will spoof a credit union or bank’s website to try and trick you into signing in. However, when you sign into this fake website, what you are doing is sending your personal bank information to the cybercriminals. Another danger of banking trojans is they can be downloaded and installed onto your device, where they’ll gain access to even more of your personal information. 

So how do you avoid this deadly virus? First, make sure your device and web browsers are fully up to date. Developers often add security patches when they are made aware of vulnerabilities in the system. Consider using an antivirus such as Norton or Bitdefender to add an extra layer of protection to your device.  

Second, familiarize yourself with phishing tactics. Phishing is when a cybercriminal will send you an email pretending to be someone else. In the case of banking trojans, they will pretend to be your bank or credit union. These emails will often have a link or file attachment that they will attempt to get you to click. Don’t click on these, as this is how they will steal your information.  

There are a few ways to see if the email is a phishing scam or not. Look at the domain name of the email. If it's not a domain you’ve heard of or not the official name of your bank, it's probably a phishing scam. Look at the email and how it's formatted. Does it look like an official email? Are there typos and grammatical errors? If so, it’s probably a scam. You can also hover over the link, but don’t click it, to see where it is going to redirect you to. If it's not the official website, it’s a scam. If you ever get a phishing scam in your inbox, most email services provide an option to report phishing or as spam. 

Third, to avoid banking trojans altogether, have a computer that you use only for your banking. That means no browsing the internet, no sending messages, and no downloading anything. This will limit a cybercriminal’s ability to steal your information. 

Last, it’s also important to have a strong password. We talked about how to protect your password in a previous Money Tip if you would like to check it out! 

If there are any other tips or topics you’d like us to cover, let us know at tcupodcast@trianglecu.org and don't forget to like and follow our Making Money Personal FB page and look for our sponsor, Triangle Credit Union on Instagram and LinkedIn to share your thoughts.  

Thanks for listening to today’s Money Tip Tuesday and be sure to check out our other tips and episodes on the Making Money Personal podcast.  

Have a great day!