First Palmetto Security Center
You do not have to be in banking for over 110 years like us to understand security is a team effort. We take your privacy and the protection of your non-public information very seriously and we believe the foundation of a banking relationship is the trust and confidence you place in us.s.
Working Together to Safeguard Your Personal & Financial Information
Our commitment to your safety and security is constantly on our minds. To help you better understand the risks for guarding against fraud, we offer this Security Center to help us partner with you because any relationship is only as strong as its weakest link when it comes to security.
The steps to preventing fraud or identity theft start simple
- Never share your information or leave it in a place that is potentially exposed.
- Monitor your credit report periodically.
- Avoid suspicious emails or phone calls that request information or ask for you to click a link or input information at a specific link.
- Keep your computer software up-to-date. Do not skip those annoying update requests because a little annoyance is preferable to the many hours recovering your identity or tracking down payments.
- Make secure backups of your personal data and keep those in a segregated, safe environment.
- Passwords are the virtual keys to your kingdom and one of the most commonly exploited tools for fraudsters and identity thieves. Guard them well.
- Always use longer and stronger passwords. By this, we mean that the more characters you have, the more difficult the password will be to brute force (guess). Passwords such as "Fluffy1" or the fabled "Password123" are insecure and very risky. Current best practice is to use a memorable sentence or non-dictionary word (or words) complete with special characters(eg: punctuation), capital letters, and even numbers.
- Use a unique password for every device and account. The internet is full of compromised databases which can be purchased on an illegal market. Emails, usernames, and other information from these lists are often reused and so a compromised social media account could very easily lead to a compromised bank account or merchant account.
- Never share your passwords with anyone. And should you ever have to share a password, immediately change the password once the person is logged off.
- Visit StopFraud.gov and USA.gov Online Safety websites for more helpful tips and best practices to avoid being caught by fraudsters.
- Review your account statement promptly upon receipt, and immediately report any suspicious or unusual transactions or activity.
First Palmetto Bank may need to periodically contact you through different channels such as the telephone or email. However, we will never request that our customers provide their electronic banking credentials or account/debit card number or PIN on an unsolicited basis. If you receive an email requesting that you disclose this information, please do not respond and contact us to report the incident.
We also closely monitor our customers' debit card transactions for possible fraud. If our system suspects a transaction may be fraudulent, you will receive a telephone call or letter from us requesting that you verify the validity of the transaction(s). Should this become necessary, we will provide the necessary card and transaction information for you to verify and will not request the disclosure of your PIN number or any further card or account information. Please find more information in our Privacy Policy.
If you become aware that you possibly may be the victim of identity theft, fraud, or have any reason to believe that your banking information has been compromised by a third party (including merchant breach, stolen credentials, or even a stolen physical checkbook or debit card), then please call us immediately 1.803.432.2265 locally or toll-free at 1.800.922.7411 during normal business hours.
If your VISA® Debit Card has been stolen or lost after normal business hours, then please call 1.800.472.3272 (domestically) or 1.973.656.2345 (collect call; internationally).
