At MERCO Bank, our top concern is the safety and security of your account. With new and different threats emerging every day, MERCO Bank continuously monitors and evaluates our defenses in order to thwart any potential harm. We have outlined some precautions and actions that you can take in order to help keep your account safe and secure.

Digital technology has made our lives easier and more convenient, but it's also made it easier for fraudsters to trick and cheat us. Learn how to spot and stop fraud, and what you can do to prevent fraud on your accounts. More and more people are falling victim to fraud each year. Any person, business or entity can be a target. In today’s growing digitization, fraud can take many forms.

As part of the MERCO Bank commitment to keeping your account and information safe and secure, we want to make you aware of several common business cyber fraud scenarios as well as actions that you can take to help protect your business from becoming the next cyber fraud victim.

FRAUD
Fraud involves deliberate acts of deception with the intent to obtain a gain, cause a loss or expose others to the risk of loss.

Globally, US$4 trillion is projected to be lost to fraud each year, as fraudsters become more adept at using technology. More than two in five consumers worldwide have experienced fraud online.

PHISHING AND WHALING
Phishers pretend to be trustworthy entities like banks or credit card companies and send out emails and instant messages prompting users to send sensitive information confirming they are the owners of the accounts. Phishers are now sending out text messages, too (SMiShing). In voice phishing, or vishing, emails ask recipients to make phone calls to dummy numbers where voice prompts ask for credit card numbers.

In the fraud world, whaling targets high-worth individuals on social networking sites such as LinkedIn. The popularity of social media is helping make advanced phishing methods even easier, given the availability of personal information on publicly viewable profiles. Fraudsters search profiles for descriptors such as vice president, chief executive officer and chief financial officer and target those high-level executives with what appears to be a subpoena or legal action.

MONEY LAUNDERING
Money laundering enables illicit finances to be hidden within the legitimate financial system. It is estimated that criminal organisations generate USD5.8tn in proceeds every year, with as much as USD4.4tn available for laundering.

The three stages of money laundering
1 Placement criminal monies are put into the financial system.
2 Layering the money is moved in the financial system to disguise its criminal origin.
3 Integration the money is absorbed into the financial system, appearing legitimate.

HOW TO REPORT FRAUD
We strongly encourage you to mail us immediately if you think your MERCO Bank account has been put in jeopardy. The sooner we know what's happened the sooner we can begin helping you. This includes credit or debit cards, personal identification information such as social security or tax ID number, MERCO-bank.com logon information including user IDs or passwords.

If you think you have received a fraudulent e-mail, do not act on it but please call us before deleting it so we can investigate for you.

Report fraud by e-mail to: your designated account representative or info@mercobank.com