While enjoying the holiday season with family, exploring a new city or visiting friends, take a few precautions to keep your finances safe.
- Keep Your Personal Information Private
Avoid sharing sensitive information like account numbers, usernames, passwords and card numbers with people you do not know.
- Spoofed emails on the rise
Watch for spoofed emails that look real. Look carefully at their URLs, scammers often use domain names that are very similar to the ones they are impersonating. They are designed to look legitimate and can be difficult to spot.
“Example: you may receive emails from addresses like name@ameranbank.com (without ‘t’ after ‘ameran’). name@ammerantbank.com (with double ‘m’) or amerant@gmail.com”. None of these correspond to Amerant Bank.
- Be wary of Phishing calls
Be cautious of phone calls that require you to provide personal information. Scammers use technology that “spoofs” phone numbers, which means the Caller ID indicates that the call is coming from Amerant, even though it is not.
“Example: you receive a phone call from someone impersonating an Amerant employee notifying that you had fraudulent activity in your account; and that, in order to render information, you need to provide your personal information to verify your identity.”
- Your package was not delivered?
Beware of messages claiming that your package could not be delivered. If a package is delayed or missing, directly contact the vendor and do not click on any links, provide any information nor send payment information.
“Example: you receive a text message from the USPS notifying that your package could not be delivered and to click on a link to reschedule your delivery. You may also be asked for personal and payment information.”
- Be careful when sending money via wire or Zelle
Verify the legitimacy of the transactions. Always confirm instructions with the recipient before you send money. You might not be able to get your money back if sent to the wrong person.
“Example: You receive an email from your landlord updating payment instructions, you send payment and a month later they communicate they have not received payment. Your landlord’s email has been hijacked and you have sent payment to a scammer.”
- One-time passcodes are your allies
One-time passcodes are additional security measures, be careful when using them. Do not provide them by phone or text unless you have initiated the communication and know who you are dealing with.
Example: “You receive a call from an alleged Amerant employee notifying that you had fraudulent charges in your account and that you need to provide them with a passcode received via text message to process a refund.”
- Avoid search engines when accessing Amerant website
When accessing your online banking, always enter Amerant’s URL using https://online.amerantbank.com/login
- Too Good to be True Offers
Be suspicious of “too good to be true” offers. Avoid clicking or downloading anything from messages that offer unsolicited or unbelievable rewards or prices.
“Example: You receive an email from your grocery store notifying that you have won $500 in grocery items, and that you just need to click on a link to claim your price”
- When in doubt of a message received
Go directly to our website or reach out to our Customer Call Center number located at the back of your card to verify if the message is real.
- Take a Moment to Think
Be suspicious of requests for urgency. Scammers will try to make the situation sound urgent so you will give them what they want before you realize what is going on. Take a moment to think about the information you are about to provide.
- Set up your Alerts and Notifications
When you set up your personalized Alert and Notification preferences in your Personal Online Banking, we can keep you up to date on the activity in your account. We can notify you about changes to your account balance, debits, checks paid, Debit Card/ATM activity and more.
- Check your Statements and Credit Regularly
Look over all your transactions so that you can spot any that may look unfamiliar.
- Use Caution on Public Wi-Fi
Only connect to known Wi-Fi networks. Beware of Wi-Fi network names that have typos, extra characters, or no password protection.
We will never ask for your email credentials or security questions neither via email nor during an online banking session.
If any email, website, link or message looks suspicious, do not click or open them and contact us immediately.
If you believe you may have been a victim of fraud, contact us as soon as possible.
Visit our Security Center at www.amerantbank.com for more fraud prevention resources.