Stay on guard for sham emails and websites that have been designed to steal your financial information. By reviewing the information below, you will learn how to protect yourself from this kind of fraud.

Avoid Email Fraud and Protect Your Privacy
Protecting Yourself
What You Need To Know
Fraudulent Emails
Examples of Fraudulent Websites
Avoid Electronic Fraud
More Information about Fraud Prevention

Avoid Email Fraud and Protect Your Privacy

If you received an email message that appeared to be from BB&T and it requested confidential personal information, you should know that it was disguised to look like a legitimate message but it did not come from BB&T.

BB&T does not solicit confidential client information this way. These messages are fraudulent and they are not from BB&T. If you happen to get one, do not respond to it.

If you have already responded to one of these messages, or have logged on to a site that appeared to be BB&T OnLine after following a link in one of these emails, please call 888-BBT-ONLINE (888-228-6654) immediately. You may also send an email to Internetfraud@bbandt.com.

Protecting Yourself

Con artists and scams are an unpleasant fact of life. To criminals, the Internet is just another way to take advantage of the unsuspecting. While electronic fraud has become a real problem in recent years, a little knowledge is all you need to protect yourself and your identity.

What You Need To Know

Electronic fraud is just like any other type of fraud. It involves a criminal pretending to be someone they're not. In the electronic world, this can mean emails with forged addresses or websites that are designed to resemble legitimate businesses. These false solicitations always have one thing in common: they ask you to provide personal information, often by asking you to "update your account information" by providing Social Security numbers, credit card numbers or other information. Once they have this information, it is easy for an experienced criminal to create a false identity for himself, using your name and your credit.

While the technology behind these crimes is complex, preventing them is easy. Never give out sensitive personal information online unless you're absolutely certain you can trust the site, and never send out sensitive information in an email.

All electronic contact with BB&T, where we request sensitive account information, is done either from one of our secure, online contact forms or inside the secure message feature of BB&T OnLine banking. If you're uncomfortable with transmitting any financial data online, you always have the option to contact us at BB&T Phone24, 800-BANK-BBT (800-226-5228), or to visit your local branch.

BB&T does occasionally conduct surveys. However, we will not contact you by email for your feedback in return for a cash incentive. Also, in any survey BB&T will never ask you to verify your account information or Social Security number by email.

Fraudulent Emails

Bogus emails target unsuspecting Internet users. They are sophisticated forgeries that will:

Look like they are coming from a legitimate business
Require urgent action to avoid account suspension
Lure you to an equally fake website
Trick you into complying with their requests in order to avoid having your account compromised
Steal your passwords, and your financial or personal information
Infect your computer or mobile device with a virus

View an example of a fraudulent email.

Examples of Fraudulent Websites

Fake website URLs often look similar to the names of legitimate websites. View example
User IDs and passwords are recorded by these sites in order to capture your confidential information. View example

Avoid Electronic Fraud

Keep these simple rules in mind, and you'll be better equipped to protect yourself:

Never send sensitive personal or financial information through email.
Don't follow links in an email asking for sensitive personal or account information, even if it looks like the source is one you know.
Ask questions. If you're suspicious, call the company that the email appears to be from and ask if it's legitimate.
Install anti-virus software on your computer and keep it up-to-date. Anti-virus programs help protect your computer against most viruses, worms and Trojans that can infect your computer. Most anti-virus software companies provide updates from their websites. Some of the most popular programs are:
- McAfee VirusScan
- Norton AntiVirus
Download and use a pop-up blocker from a legitimate source. Some pop-up ads could contain viruses or other harmful software that can record your keystrokes or relay other information to another source.
Equip your computer with either a software firewall or a hardware firewall. A firewall will allow you to limit unauthorized access to your computer.
Keep your computer operating system, Web browser and security settings up-to-date. Security patches and updates are usually available from the software vendors' websites.
Scan your computer for spyware regularly. Spyware is a computer program which can be installed on personal computers, usually without your permission, which may collect information about your website activity and send it back to another source.
Only keep your internet connection active when you are using it.
Turn off your computer when you are not using it.
Never share your PIN, account number or password.
Do not open email attachments unless you can trust the source.
Print the BB&T Online Fraud Prevention Guide and keep it by your computer.
Never access sensitive information from Internet cafes, public libraries, etc.

You can read more about electronic fraud or report suspicious email activity at the Federal Trade Commission website.

More Information about Fraud Prevention

Don't be lured in by a phishing scam! View presentation.
Federal Trade Commission suggestions for ways to avoid email scams and deal with deceptive spam.
Updates on the latest email hoaxes.
U.S. Department of Justice information on information on identity theft.