Phishing uses both social engineering and technical gimmicks to steal consumers' personal identity data and financial account credentials. 'Spoofed' e-mails lead consumers to counterfeit websites designed to trick recipients into giving financial data such as credit card numbers, account usernames, passwords, and social security numbers.

Citizens Business Bank will never initiate a request for sensitive information from customers (i.e., social security number, personal login ID, password, PIN or account number) nor ask customers to verify account information via email.

We strongly suggest that customers do not share personal login ID, password, PIN, or account number with anyone, under any circumstances.

• Be suspicious of any email with urgent requests for personal financial information.
• Don't use the links in an email to get to any web page, if you suspect the message might not be authentic.
• Avoid filling out forms in email messages that ask for personal financial information.
• Always ensure that you're using a secure website when submitting credit card or other sensitive information via your Web browser.
• Consider installing a Web browser tool bar to help protect you from known phishing fraud websites.
• Regularly log into your online accounts.
• Regularly check your bank, credit and debit card statements to ensure that all transactions are legitimate.
• Ensure that your browser is up to date and security patches applied.
• Always report "phishing" or "spoofed" e-mails to the following groups:
• Forward email to reportphishing@antiphishing.com.
• Forward email to the Federal Trade Commission spam@uce.gov.
• Forward email to the "abuse" email address at the company that is being spoofed (e.g. "spoof@ebay.com").
• When forwarding spoofed messages, always include the entire original email with its original header information intact.
• Notify the Internet Fraud Complaint Center of the FBI by filing a complaint on their website: www.ifccfbi.gov.
• Report suspicious emails or calls to the Federal Trade Commission through the Internet