What is Phishing?
The FBI has called phishing the "hottest, most troubling new scam on the Internet." Phishing - pronounced "fishing" - is the latest form of identity theft. It's when thieves act as if they are representing an organization and try to "hook" the consumer into providing personal information. Once the consumer is "hooked", the thieves can do lasting damage to a consumer's financial accounts. They can dupe customers into providing their Social Security numbers, financial account numbers, PINs, mothers' maiden names and other personal information.

The thieves often pose as a:

• Financial institution
• Credit card company
• Online merchant
• Utility or other biller
• Internet service provider
• Government agency
• Prospective employers

Phishing is perpetrated by both phone and e-mail, although e-mail is more prevalent.

Here's how it works: Consumers receive an e-mail from an organization with which they do business. The e-mail typically includes bogus appeals such as problems with an account or billing errors, and asks the consumer to confirm his/her personal information. Different approaches include things such as "We're updating our records," "We've indentified fraudulent activity on your account," or "Valuable account and personal information was lost due to a computer glitch." To encourage people to act immediately, the e-mail usually threatens that the account could be closed or canceled.

Most e-mails ask recipients to follow the embedded link that takes them to an exact replica of the victim company's Web site. Graphics on the counterfeit site are so convincing that even experts often can have a hard time distinguishing the fake site from the real one.
Click here for a sample

Despite the convincing appeals, consumers should not respond to unsolicited e-mails that direct them to divulge personal identifying information. Reputable organizations that consumers legitimately do business with generally do not request account numbers or passwords unless the consumer initiated the transaction.

Protecting Personal Information
Use these common-sense tips to help protect yourself against phishing and other forms of identity theft:

• Be suspicious if someone contacts you unexpectedly and asks for your personal information. Most legitimate companies and agencies do not operate that way.
• Do not click links in e-mails that ask you to provide personal information. To check whether an e-mail or call is really from the company or agency, call the company directly or go to its Web site (use a search engine to find it).
• Do not provide personal information (such as your Social Security number, account numbers, PINs, passwords etc.) via phone, e-mail or otherwise unless you initiated the contact with a trusted partner.
• If someone contacts you via phone or e-mail and says you've been a victim of fraud, verify the person's identity, and contact the organization directly before you provide any personal information.
• If you manage any of your financial accounts online, choose passwords that are difficult for others to guess and use a different password for each of your online accounts. Change the password frequently.
• Make sure the Web sites on which you transact business post privacy and security statements. Be sure to review them carefully.

Heartland Bank's Customer Commitment
Heartland Bank is comitted to protecting your private, personal and financial information. (see Privacy Policy). Heartland Bank will never send emails or place phone calls asking for personal or account information, such as passwords, Social Security Numbers, PINs, credit or Debit Card numbers, or other confidential information.

Report Suspected Phishing
Should you receive an email that appears to be from Heartland Bank asking for personal information- DO NOT RESPOND! Please promptly forward the suspected fraudulent email or web link to info@heartland-bank.com or call our customer service department at 314.512.8888.

If you belive you have provided Heartland account information in response to a fraudulent email or telephone call, please contact us at info@heartland-bank.com or call 314.512.8888.