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Country Bank for Savings, a Massachusetts chartered mutual savings bank with its Main Office located at 155 West Street, Ware, Massachusetts 01082, is applying with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation for permission to establish a full-service branch office at 158 North Main Street, Uxbridge, MA 01569. Any person wishing to comment on this application may file his or her comments in writing with the regional director of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation at the appropriate FDIC office located at 15 Braintree Hill Park, Suite 200, Braintree, MA 02184-8701 not later than 15 days from the date of this publication. The non-confidential portions of the application are on file at the appropriate FDIC office and are available for public inspection during regular business hours. Photocopies of the non-confidential portion of the application file will be made available upon request.

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COMMUNICATIONS CENTER

SIM CARD SCAM – KEEPING YOU SAFE AND PROTECTED

Posted on May 16, 2022

As your trusted banking partner, we want to make sure you are aware of a current ongoing scam and also provide some helpful tips on how you can avoid falling victim to scams.

There are a number of steps that individuals can take to protect their phones from SIM card hijacking.

Your cellular device has a small chip called a SIM card. Hackers have been able to fool carriers into transferring a mobile account to a device with a different SIM card by calling the carrier’s customer service with a fake emergency claiming to have lost their phone and needing to transfer the account to another phone. If they have sufficient information (address, account number, social security number, etc.), they may be able to convince someone to re-assign your SIM to another fraudulent phone. Once this happens, they have access to all your email and other accounts you have set up on your phone. Since they control the phone, verification texts and calls will now go to that fraudulent device.

Here are some steps you can take to help prevent this kind of hack:

  • Set up a PIN on your phone.
  • Set up a PIN with your carrier.
  • Enable a NO PORT setting with your carrier.
  • Try to not use your cell phone number on accounts for voice or text confirmation. Use a virtual phone number such as Google Voice or Ring
    Central.
  • Use an independent multi-factor verification method when possible (Duo, Google or Microsoft Authenticator) for your email accounts.

Learn more about Cell Phone Fraud from the FCC  here.

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