If you haven’t heard the word financial fraud, then you are one of the lucky few who has not been scammed or received a potential scam. Financial fraud has become one of the largest challenges many consumers and businesses face as technology continues to advance. While fraud tactics increase there are many things, we, as consumers can do to avoid becoming the victim.

Be Cautious

When living in a digital world, we have a tendency to communicate through email or text messaging. This puts us into autopilot mode where we start overlooking specific red flags, which becomes a risk. When we go into auto pilot, we often lose sight of important details such as grammatical errors or higher urgency to a request than usual. When receiving messages that appear to be suspicious, the first thing we should do is take a moment to read the message thoroughly and exercise caution. It never hurts to call the person that is sending the message to ensure the request is legitimate.

Create Strong Passwords

While creating a strong, more secure password can be troublesome it could save your accounts in the future. The number of digital banking users continues to grow on a daily basis. Using the same password for different login portals can give cybercriminals easy access to personal information. Many professionals recommend changing your password every 60 days. Additionally, always use a strong password that incorporates numbers, special characters and upper & lower-case patterns.

Review Accounts Regularly

Life gets busy and many times we overlook reviewing our statements each month. Whether you receive paper statements or eStatements it should be reviewed at the end of each month to ensure the transactions listed are correct. Your credit report is also an important piece of information that often goes unchecked. First Savings Bank offers an in-app credit monitoring tool called Credit Score powered by SavvyMoney, which allows consumers to monitor their credit and report any inconsistencies. You can visit AnnualCreditReport.com and receive a free copy of your credit report up to three times per week for the next year.