How to Protect Your Personal Information

Protecting your finances and identity begins with keeping your personal information to yourself. Follow these 8 best practices to protect your money and prevent identity theft.

Never share your Member Number or account numbers

People you meet online — as well as anyone promising employment — don’t need access to your Patelco account.

Never give out your online banking User ID or Password

Telling these to someone enables them to steal the money in your Patelco account.

Keep your debit and credit card PINs to yourself

We will never contact you by phone, email or text to ask you for this information. Find out more about how to protect your debit and credit cards.

Choose eStatements

Sign up in Patelco Online™ to receive eStatements, which prevents mail theft of paper statements. After logging in, select Accounts from the main menu, then select Accounts. Then select the Statements & Documents tab, then select Settings. Select the option for eStatements for your accounts and then select Submit.

Never provide remote computer access to strangers

Beware of strangers calling and claiming there’s something wrong with your computer – they’re scammers trying to steal your money or identity.

If you think you’ve been phished, take these 4 steps to protect yourself.

1. Change your passwords to your computer, to financial institutions, and to your online accounts. When you’re changing your financial institution and other online account passwords, do that using a different computer than the one you think you were phished on.
2. Run a full system scan on the compromised computer using the built-in antivirus software (if the computer has it), or the software from a reputable company.
3. Contact your financial institution to report that there has been potential fraud performed on your account.
4. Consider asking the credit bureaus to place a fraud alert or credit freeze on your account – their contact information can be found on this page.

Don’t send money to people you haven’t met

Beware of people you meet online – romantic scams could cost you your life savings.

Dispose of personal information properly

Any papers that contain your personal information should be shredded before being thrown into the recycle. Follow similar precautions for electronics –  before you dispose of a computer, get rid of all the personal information it stores by using a wipe utility program to overwrite the entire hard drive. Before you dispose of a mobile device like a phone, check for information on how to delete information permanently (after you transfer it to your new device).