AmericasBANK Notes

IN THIS ISSUE:

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Internet Schemes, Scams and Fraud

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Tips Against Cyber-Fraud

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Resources

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Great Rates!

REMEMBER

RESOURCES

Dear Customers and Friends of AmericasBANK;

Happy New Year! We hope that everyone had a happy and healthy holiday season.

AmericasBANK has completed a very successful and eventful 2004.  Among our accomplishments were:

1. We raised over $5MM in new equity in a public offering.

2. We upgraded our products and services in order to be able to serve the depository needs of small businesses, particularly professional service companies.

3. We purchased a small mortgage brokerage firm, greatly enhancing our origination capabilities.

4. We created an assortment of portfolio mortgage products to serve the needs of real estate investors, home owners, and 1st and 2nd home buyers that are not being met in the “conforming” loan market. Our products are proving to be very popular, as is our flexible and creative approach to residential real estate lending.

5. We completely renovated our lobby and added two new offices and a conference room on the lobby floor for better customer convenience and access. Please come by and visit us and see the improvements that we have made.

We are very grateful to all of you who have given us advice, referred business to us, or become our customers.

The Internet has been a blessing to most of us, but the dark side of this amazing innovation is becoming increasingly threatening. Words and phrases like “Phishing,” “Spoofing,” and “Indentity Fraud” have become well-known. You may find the following tips and links to be helpful as you negotiate you way through Cyberspace in 2005. o

Guarding Against "Phishing," "Spoofing,"
and Other Cyber-fraud.

On-Line Fraud is Growing - Internet fraud can be any type of scheme that uses the internet—chat rooms, email, message boards or websites—to deceive prospective victims. These schemes, scams and frauds take advantage of the Internet's unique capabilities—sending email messages worldwide in seconds or posting website information that is readily accessible from anywhere in the world—to carry out fraud quicker than ever possible in the past.

As a bank customer, you need to be especially vigilant

to some of the newer frauds at work in cyberspace.

Phishing—Fraudulent emails, appearing to be from a trusted source such as your bank, or a government agency, direct you to websites. Once there, you are asked to verify personal information such as name, account and credit card numbers and passwords. These sites are often designed to look exactly like the site they are imitating.

CYBER-DEFENSE TACTICS:

• If you receive an email that warns you, with little or no notice, that your account will be shut down unless you reconfirm certain information, do not click on the email link. Instead, use a phone number or enter the web address yourself. Clicking on a link that looks legitimate may in fact direct you to a fraudulent website where crooks will steal your personal information. Remember, your bank or a government agency will never send you an alert asking you to disclose your personal information.

• Before submitting any financial information to a legitimate website, look for the "lock" icon on the browser status bar, or look for "https" in the web address. Both are indications that the information is secure and encrypted during transmission.

• Report suspicious activity to the FTC (see resources section).

Spoofing—Web spoofing allows an attacker to create a "shadow copy" of any legitimate website. Access to the shadow web is funneled through the attacker's machine, allowing the attacker to monitor all of the victim's activities, including any passwords or account numbers the victim enters. The attacker can also cause false or misleading data to be sent to web servers in the victim's name, or to the victim in the name of any web server. In spoofing, an attacker gains unauthorized access to a computer or a network by making it appear that a malicious message has come from a trusted machine by "spoofing" the address of that machine. Phishing and spoofing often go hand-in-hand in Internet fraud.

CYBER-DEFENSE TACTICS:

• Be wary of unsolicited or unexpected emails from all sources.

• If an unsolicited email arrives, treat it as you would a phishing source.

Identity Theft Frauds—Internet fraudsters often use identity theft as a starting point for larger crimes. In one case, criminals obtained the names and social security numbers of military personnel, then used them to apply to a bank over the Internet for credit cards. In another case, stolen personal data was used to submit car loan applications online.

CYBER-DEFENSE TACTICS:

• Keep a close eye on your account activity at your bank, either through statements or using their online services. Report anything that looks suspicious.

• Your personal information can be obtained by "phishing," "spoofing," or the old fashioned way—dumpster diving. Make sure your unused checks, bills, and statements are shredded before discarding.

GENERAL TIPS AGAINST CYBER-FRAUD

• Don't Judge By Initial Appearances. Just because something appears on the Internet—no matter how impressive or professional the website looks—doesn't mean it's real. The ready availability of software that allows anyone, at minimal cost, to set up a professional-looking website means that criminals can make their websites look as impressive as those of legitimate businesses, banks or government agencies.

• Be Careful About Giving Out Personal Data Online. If you receive emails from someone you don't know asking for personal data—don't send the data without knowing more about who is asking. While secure transactions with known e-commerce sites should be safe, especially if you pay by credit card, non-secure messages to both known and unknown recipients are not safe.

• Be Especially Wary of Emails Concealing Their True Identity. If someone sends you an email using a mail header that has no useful identifying data (e.g., W6T758@provider.com), that may be an indication that the person is hiding something and is not legitimate.

• Review Credit Card Account Statements. As soon as you receive them, check to determine whether there are any unauthorized charges or suspicious charges/transactions. If your statement is late by more than a few days, call your credit card company or bank to confirm your billing address/account balances, and determine whether they have mailed your statement.

• Watch Out For "Advance-Fee" Demands. Look carefully at any online seller of goods or services that wants you to send checks or money orders immediately to a post office box before you receive the goods or services you've been promised.

• Use Common Sense. o

WEBSITE

Our “new and improved” web site is live as of September 1st. We invite you to visit at www.americasbank.com. The sections on “Our People” and “Services” will tell you the great people we have recruited for our team, and the state-of-the-art product portfolio that we have built over the last year.  We feel that we can compete head to head with anybody with these assets at our disposal. If you, or any of your clients, want to try out AmericasBANK, we will waive most service charges for six months for any new corporate accounts. o