Identity and Fraud Safeguards

Protecting you from fraud is our top priority! Health Advantage Credit Union is committed to ensuring the safety and security of your information!

How to Protect Yourself

Never disclose any personal identifying information if requested from an unsolicited email, text message or phone call that may seem like it’s been sent from or calling you from Health Advantage Credit Union. They may seem reasonable to answer, but HACU never requests information in this manner. This is considered “phishing”. Please contact HACU about any such solicitation immediately or simply delete. For more information, read our Privacy Policy.  This includes:

• Account information
• Social Security Number
• Mother's maiden name
• Online Banking Access Code
• Account Access Code
• ATM Card PIN
• Credit Card Number, Expiration Date or PIN

Exception:  We have 24x7 monitoring systems for our credit and debit cards.  You may receive a phone call from these monitoring systems to verify that you performed a transaction that they consider suspicious or unusual for you.  However, when they do contact you they will never ask you for any personal identifying information.

Identity Theft

What is Identity Theft?  Identity theft occurs when someone uses your personal identifying information, like your name, Social Security number, or credit card number, without your permission, to commit fraud or other crimes.

Click on the Title to be directed to the FTC website for comprehensive information on Identity Theft

Social Engineering

What is Social Engineering?  Instead of attacking a computer, Social Engineering is the act of interacting and manipulating people to obtain important/sensitive information or perform an act that is latently harmful. To be blunt, it is hacking a person instead of a computer. A social engineer can use the phone, the internet, or even show up in person to perform the malicious act. They can be after data such as ID number, username, password, server names, machine names, remote connection settings, schedules, credit card numbers, etc. They may also try to get someone to install some malicious software, visit an unscrupulous website, or even access unauthorized locations.

Comprehensive information on the prevention of social engineering

Phishing

What is Phishing?  The personal information is then used to access the individual’s account and can result in identity theft and financial loss.

Comprehensive information on the prevention of Phishing and the current scams

Online Safety

Protect Your Personal Information

• Make passwords long and strong: Combine capital and lowercase letters with numbers and symbols to create a more secure password.
• Unique account, unique password: Separate passwords for every account helps to thwart cyber-criminals.
• Write it down and keep it safe: Everyone can forget a password. Keep a list that’s stored in a safe, secure place away from your computer.
• Own your online presence: When available, set the privacy and security settings on websites to your comfort level for information sharing. It’s ok to limit who you share information with.
• When in doubt, throw it out: Links in email, tweets, posts, and online advertising are often the way cyber-criminals compromise your computer. If it looks suspicious, even if you know the source, it’s best to delete or if appropriate, mark as junk email.
• Get savvy about Wi-Fi hotspots: Limit the type of business you conduct and adjust the security settings on your device to limit who can access your laptop or cell phone.
• Protect your money: When banking and shopping, check to be sure the site is security enabled. Look for web addresses with “https://” or “shttp://”, which means the site takes extra measures to help secure your information. “http://” is not secure.

Comprehensive information on Online Safety

Safe Mobile Banking

Be proactive in securing the mobile device itself. Depending on what security options are available on your device, create a "strong" password (consisting of unusual combinations of upper- and lower-case letters, numbers and symbols) or PIN (with random numbers instead of, say, 1234 or the last four digits of your Social Security number) and periodically change it.

• Be careful about where and how you conduct transactions. Don't use an unsecured Wi-Fi network, such as those found at coffee shops, because fraud artists might be able to access the information you are transmitting or viewing.
• Don’t send account numbers or other sensitive information through regular e-mails or text messages because those are not necessarily secure.
• Check with your wireless provider in advance to find out about features that enable you to remotely erase content or turn off access to your device or account if you lose your phone.
• Research any application ("app") before downloading it. Just because the name of an app resembles the name of your credit union — or of another company you're familiar with — don't assume that it is the official one of that credit union or company.

The best place to download an app is from the official Web site of the credit union or company that you are doing business with or from a legitimate app store. Note that the business will often direct you to an app store.