Northfield Bank COVID-19 Security Advisory

Financial opportunities provided by the CARES Act may be used by cyber criminals to deceive you with phishing attempts or malicious cyber attacks.  Potential deceptive topics could include economic stimulus, personal checks, loan and grant programs, IRS or Treasury stimulus checks, or other items related to the CARES Act and COVID-19. 

The most common cyber-attacks include criminal attempts to obtain your personally identifiable information to access your online banking account or commit wire fraud.

We encourage customers to remain extra vigilant during these times and take the following precautions to avoid falling victim to email phishing schemes:

• Do not click on links from sources you don’t know to avoid downloading viruses onto your computer or device.
• Check for generic subject lines.  Legitimate emails usually have a detailed subject line and a vague subject lines can be a key indicator of a phishing scam.
• Use your cursor to hover over links included in emails to see the actual destination of the URL.
• Check for bad grammar and spelling.  Emails that contain misspelled words and bad grammar are a sign that the email did not come from a legitimate organization or person you may know.
• Watch out for unnecessary urgency and if something looks suspicious, consider contacting the organization directly to validate the information.
• Do not give out personal or financial information in email or texts, and do not respond to email and texts requesting this information.

We also advise you to only use trusted sources such as legitimate, government websites for up-to-date, fact-based information about COVID-19.