Alliance Bank considers itself to be a premiere community bank in the Southeast Missouri area and does not take that responsibility lightly. As times change and technologies advance, our customers in small town markets are becoming more of a target for fraudulent activities. We would like to take this opportunity to inform our customers of some recent scams and security issues that have been occurring in our area. These scams are not new; but they are still being used with regularity. A few examples are:

  1. Fraudulent calls have been reported in our area. An alleged computer support person, from a well-recognized company such as Microsoft, calls to claim that a computer at the residence has been infected with a virus. The caller then requests to gain access into the home computer by a remote access program. THIS IS NOT A LEGITIMATE PHONE CALL. Please be cautious and do not allow anyone to remotely connect to your computer. If ever in doubt of the identity of a caller, please ask their name and call the company to confirm.
  2. When a company’s credit and debit cards are compromised, customers start receiving emails (which are referred to as Phishing emails), asking them to clink on links that look like they are taking them to a legitimate company website. What really happens is the person is led to a malicious website that ends up infecting the computer with malware or viruses.Think twice before you click. If you “hover” your mouse over a link that is attached in an email, it will tell you where it is going. If that website or document is malicious, this can lead to a quick infection of your system. Unfortunately, antivirus software doesn’t catch everything. Try to make a habit of slowing down when browsing and use some healthy skepticism.
  3. The recent system hackings of JPMorgan and 1.2 other million passwords by Russian mobs put consumer’s personal information at risk. If you have not already done so, we recommend you change your passwords on any websites where you enter a User ID and password; this includes any personal email accounts. It is recommended you change your passwords every 90 days.

We at Alliance Bank are here for you to call upon with any questions. With the rush of everyday distractions, it is easy for us to be in a hurry and click on something we will regret or allow someone to have access to something they shouldn’t. We hope this information will serve as a reminder that it ALWAYS serves to be cautious.