Financial Wellness & Education

A compilation of tips and recommendations from Planters First Bank and its partners on ways to stay safe online, as well as how to avoid cyber threats and scams during this pandemic. Avoiding Cyber Threats and Scams: FTC: Coronavirus: Scammers follow the headlines FTC & FDA: Tips for Avoiding Coronavirus Scams FTC & FDA: Coronavirus Scams, Part 2 FTC: Beware of Census 2020 Scams! ESET: Beware Scams Exploiting Coronavirus Fears Security Tips for Remote Workers:...

It can be a bit overwhelming to understand all of the terms you’ll hear tossed about regarding cybersecurity. Just a few include malware, ransomware, phishing, worm, and many more. So while we can’t explain all things cybersecurity in this article, our goal here is to give you an overview of many of the more common terms. Malware – This includes viruses, worms, and Trojan Horses. These are software programs that infect your machine and carry malicious codes to destroy the data on...

Personal finance is as important as ever these days! We’d like to share the three top tips for dealing with taxes, loans, and credit cards. Taxes: Plan. Find a really good accountant or when you file with a tax preparer, they should have great info for how to best manage your taxes for the next year. Conduct personal finance planning meetings to evaluate changes in your life. (baby, college, retirement) Loans: Pay it off! Simple, but true. Debt is only good if you’re looking to...

Text messages are becoming the primary way for people to interact with businesses, in fact, texting is the single most used feature on a smartphone. Today's scammers have taken to targeting victims via Short Message Service (SMS) text message scams in addition to traditional email-based phishing attacks. SMS Phishing, or Smishing, is becoming a common method to steal data or install malware on your smartphone. Most phishing scams try to take advantage of natural human emotions of fear or...