PRIVACY POLICIES/SECURITY NOTICES

IMPORTANT CORONAVIRUS UPDATE:

Charter Oak wants you to stay safe and informed. During these vulnerable times, please be aware of Fraud and Coronavirus Scams. As a reminder, Charter Oak will never call you, or send an email or text to you requesting that you respond and provide your personal information. Please visit these sites for further resources on how to protect yourselves from financial scams.

• Federal Trade Commission
• CT Department of Consumer Protection
• FBI Coronavirus page
• IRS tips on avoiding stimulus check scams

• Remember the saying: if something sounds too good to be true, it likely isn’t true or real.
• Always remember to “think before you click.”
• Never click on a link that you weren’t expecting, even when it may look like it’s from a company or a service that you think you recognize.
• Watch out for words like “Beware!” or “Warning!” designed to make you panic.
• Always be wary of emails with spelling or grammatical errors, especially those claiming to be from a reliable source.
• If you’re uncertain of an email supposedly from someone in your company, give the person a quick call.

For examples of scams you should be on the lookout for, please click the link below:

ALWAYS PROTECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION!

At Charter Oak Federal Credit Union, we are committed to keeping your financial information secure and protected. It’s important that you help us safeguard your information.

Please be aware that Charter Oak will never call you, or send an email or text to you requesting that you respond and provide your personal information.

• If you receive an email requesting personal or account information, please do not respond or click on any link. Instead, you should delete the email and contact Charter Oak during business hours by calling 860.446.8085 or toll free at 800.962.3237.
• If you receive a telephone call requesting personal or account information, please do not provide any information to the caller. Please ask for the caller’s phone number and then hang up. Contact Charter Oak during business hours by calling 860.446.8085 or toll free at 800.962.3237 or visit any of our branches for assistance.

Your privacy and security are very important to us, and we want to ensure that your financial information always remains secure and protected.

FRAUD AND SECURITY

Phishing Alerts and Fraud Alerts

Phishing is the fraudulent practice of sending emails purporting to be from reputable companies in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.

PLEASE NOTE! Charter Oak’s Fraud Department has become aware that fraudulent calls or text messages are being made to our members attempting to get Debit Card numbers.

Please do not respond to this and never give out your personal information to anyone.

As a reminder, Charter Oak will never call you, or send an email or text to you requesting that you respond and provide your personal information. Please contact us immediately if you have received such a call or text and disclosed your information. Please call 860.446.8085 and press 2 to have your compromised card closed.

Member Education and Awareness

No data transmission over the Internet or any wireless network can be 100% guaranteed secure. Accordingly, while we strive to protect and maintain the security of our website and your personal information, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us from the website, and you do so at your own risk.

How to Protect Yourself:

• Shred sensitive documents instead of just throwing them in the trash or recycling bin.
• Regularly change your passwords to reduce the risk of online identity theft.
• Leave nothing of value in your car such as your wallet, laptop or mobile device.
• Don’t give out personal information over the phone, over the Internet or through regular mail unless you initiated the contact. If you receive communication by someone claiming to be your financial institution, don’t respond. Instead, contact the institution with a number you know to be correct.
• If a sale or contest on social media seems too good to be true, it probably is. Don’t get involved.
• Do not enter any sensitive personal information on your laptop or mobile device while using public wi-fi. This is a treasure trove for thieves just waiting to collect your information.
• Be sure to have a password on your personal home wi-fi. This will keep hackers from breaking in to your system.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF AND YOUR IDENTITY PLEASE VISIT ANY OF THE LINKS BELOW:

• AARP Fraud Watch Network
  http://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/fraud-watch-network/
• MyCreditUnion.gov
  https://www.mycreditunion.gov/fraud-prevention-center
• Federal Trade Commission
  https://identitytheft.gov/

WEBSITE PRIVACY NOTICE

Online Security

Make sure you are on a secure site before entering your user name, password or other personal or financial information when using this website. The address of a secure site begins with “https,” rather the “http.” It is okay for the home page to begin with “http,” but the login page URL for Online Banking and other sites where personal information is entered will begin with “https.” To verify that a site is secure, you can read the Security Certificate details by clicking on the padlock that appears in the address bar. View the Certificate and make sure it matches the site.

Unauthorized Access

This is the official Charter Oak Federal Credit Union Website. All information is proprietary and any unauthorized use, access, distribution, or copying is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved. Charter Oak Federal Credit Union, 2017. Any unauthorized use or access to this website will be reported to local, state and federal agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Any information relating to the misuse or unlawful access of this site should be reported to Charter Oak Federal Credit Union’s Security Officer at 860.446.8085.

Aggregated Data

In order to determine the level of interest in information available on our website and help us design or improve our products and services, we may use standard software to collect information about visitors to the website and use such information to create summary statistics. This information is maintained only in aggregated form and cannot be used to identify you. The information we collect and use from the website may include:

• Date and time our site was accessed
• IP address (a numeric address given to servers connected to the Internet)
• Web browser use
• City, state, and country

“Cookies”

We use “cookies” as part of our website interface. A “cookie” is a small file that is placed on the user’s computer. While it contains no member information, it identifies the member’s computer and allows Charter Oak to measure usage of the website and customize the website experience.

Links

Charter Oak will occasionally link to other sites as a convenience to our members. We will seek to link with other sites that adhere to similar privacy standards. For all third-party links, Charter Oak will disclose the following information, typically in a pop-up message that requires acceptance before continuing:

• The user is leaving our website.
• The user is linking to an alternate website not operated by Charter Oak.
• We are not responsible for the content of the alternate website.
• We do not represent either the third party or the user/member if the two enter into a transaction.
• Privacy and security policies may differ from those practiced by Charter Oak.