Fort Financial blog

In today's digital age, protecting your identity and personal information is more crucial than ever before. With the increasing frequency of data breaches and identity theft incidents, we understand the importance of providing you with comprehensive solutions to keep your financial assets and personal data secure.

All Fort Financial members are eligible for identity theft recovery services, a fully-managed identity fraud research, remediation and recovery service, performed by certified, licensed recovery advocates.

Happy World Password Day! Your passwords are the keys to your life. And when it feels like there’s another big security breach every week, you want to be sure those passwords are strong and safe. Check out these six steps for super-strong passwords that will keep scammers guessing.

In our ongoing commitment to your financial safety, Fort Financial is dedicated to providing you with valuable insights on how to protect yourself from potential financial fraud. While fraud is a year-round challenge, being informed and vigilant can significantly reduce the risk to your financial well-being.

The holidays are here and so is all those online deals! But are they too good to be true? Buying fake products online is a common concern for many shoppers. Often if an online offer sounds too good to be true, it is. Here are some tips to help you avoid purchasing counterfeit items:

Few of us can imagine going a day without using our cellphones. For many people, it’s become their preferred method of communicating and doing business. Scammers take advantage of our reliance on cellphones and use them to trick us into giving them our personal information. It’s important to be aware of the kinds of scams they use.

Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) are a convenient way to access your funds using your debit card. That convenience also appeals to crooks. For that reason, it’s important to learn how to access your funds safely and protect them from being accessible by others.

The deadline to file your federal taxes is coming up, and the bad guys pretending to be the IRS are popping back up as well. Being contacted by the IRS is probably one of the scariest things most people can think of, whether it be for an audit or collections. The truth is, it shouldn’t be scary at all. You have rights, and the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) has strict guidelines they must follow. However, scammers have taken advantage of that fear to trick people out of millions of dollars. Here are some things to know to avoid scams.

Identity theft happens to millions of people each year, no matter how high or low their checking account balance. No one is immune. And with over 15.4 million identity theft cases in 2016, it’s one of the fastest growing crimes in the world. Depending on how long the fraudulent activity (that means it’s illegal and done by someone claiming to be another person) has gone on undetected, it can take months or years to sort out the mess and get the victim’s life back on track.

Time isn’t the only cost of identity theft. Victims also suffer two forms of financial loss: direct and indirect. Direct loss is the money stolen or misused by the thief from banking or savings and investment accounts. Indirect loss includes other costs like legal fees, overdraft charges, harm to their credit score, or time missed from work to combat the fraudulent activity. 

We have been made aware that members are receiving scam calls from people impersonating Fort Financial employees. The scammers are spoofing the Fort Financial number in the caller ID and telling members that their debit card has fraud on it and that they need to get it shut down. The scammers are telling members that the fraud is happening in Georgia and asking for their account and Social Security numbers in order to get access to their accounts. 

The scammers are then able to access members account once they receive a verification code that allows them to log in. Once they are logged in, they can control the account and send money to another account.