Commercial Customer Newsletter
Thankful Banner Image
Dear Planters Bank Family,

During the holiday season, we wanted to take the time to thank you for your relationship with Planters Bank. We celebrated 124 years in business this year. We would not have reached this significant milestone without our loyal customers. Planters Bank strives to provide you with the most innovative and customer-friendly products and services. 

On behalf of the Board of Directors and Management, we want to wish you the best of Holidays. We appreciate your business.

Sincerely,
Mike Phillips
Chief Executive Officer
CMA, CTP, CRP, CFM, CICA
Upcoming Holiday Processing Schedule:
 
Thanksgiving
  • Planters Bank will be closed November 26th in observance of Thanksgiving Day. ACH files and Commercial Remote Deposits received on Thanksgiving Day will be processed the next business day, Friday, November 27th. 

  • Planters Bank will close at 12 pm (Noon) on Friday, November 27th. ACH files and Commercial Remote Deposits received after 12 pm will be processed on Monday, November 30th

Christmas
  • Planters Bank will close at 12 pm (Noon) on Thursday, December 24th. ACH files and Commercial Remote Deposits received after 11:30 am will be processed on Monday, November 30th.

  • Planters Bank will be closed December 25th and 26th in observance of Christmas. ACH files and Commercial Remote Deposits received on December 25th or December 26th will be processed the next business day, Monday, December 28th. 

New Year
  • Planters Bank will be closing at 4:00 pm on Thursday, December 31st and closed all day Friday, January 1st in observance of New Year’s Day. ACH files and Commercial Remote Deposits received on New Year’s Day will be processed the next business day, Monday, January 4th. 

If you have any questions please contact Tracy NeSmith
or the Solution Center at (833) 732-8351.
General Availability:
Planters Bank Team Member Spotlight
We are excited to introduce Genny McDonald.

Genny is a Solutions Center Associate and is trained in Treasury Support for our Business customers. She is also trained in Deposit and Digital Services support.

Genny’s career at Planters Bank began in April 2019. Since joining the bank, she has established herself as a tremendous asset who offers outstanding customer service. Additionally, her knowledge of our products, services, and treasury solutions has quickly evolved during her tenure with the bank. Genny started in the Ocilla Branch and now calls the Solution Center in Fitzgerald her work home. Genny is excited to assist with your banking needs and offers support through telephone, video, and chat.
PROTECTING AGAINST FRAUD
HOW TO SPOT AND PREVENT FRAUD SCHEMES

Fraud schemes continue to grow, evolve and target legitimate businesses, nonprofits, government and other public-sector organizations. Business Email Compromise, Vendor Impersonation Fraud, and Payroll Impersonation Fraud are monitored by the FBI.

BUSINESS EMAIL COMPROMISE

What Is It?
With Business Email Compromise, legitimate business email accounts are either compromised or impersonated, and then used to order or request the transfer of funds. The fraudster will often compromise one of the business’ officers and monitor his or her account for patterns, contacts and information. Using information gained from social media or ‘out of office messages, the fraudster will often wait until the officer is away on business to use the compromised email account to send payment instructions. 

How It’s Done
  • Fraudster monitors officer’s accounts for patterns, contacts and information.
  • After identifying the target, ploys are conducted such as spear-phishing, social engineering, identity theft, email spoofing, and the use of malware to either gain access to or convincingly impersonate the email account.
  • Fraudster uses the compromised email account to send payment instructions.
  • Payment instructions direct the funds to an account controlled by the fraudster.

Avoid Being a Victim
  • Solid internal controls are key to guarding against these scams.
  • Understand these attacks can come via email, phone calls, faxes or letters in the mail. Don’t assume it’s a cybersecurity problem.
  • Educate and train employees to recognize, question, and independently authenticate changes in payment instructions, requests for secrecy, or pressure to take action quickly.
  • Authenticate requests to make payment or change payment information.
  • Review accounts frequently.
  • Initiate payments using dual controls.
  • Never provide password, username, authentication credentials, or account information when contacted.
  • Don’t provide nonpublic business information on social media.
  • Avoid free web-based email accounts for business purposes. A company domain should always be used to establish company personnel emails.
  • To make impersonation harder, consider registering domains that closely resemble the company’s actual domain.
  • Do not use the “reply’ option when authenticating emails for payment requests. Instead, use the ‘forward’ option and type in the correct email address or select from a known address book.
"THE BEST WAY TO AVOID BEING EXPLOITED IS TO VERIFY THE AUTHENTICITY OF REQUESTS TO SEND MONEY BY WALKING INTO THE CEO’S OFFICE OR SPEAKING TO HIM OR HER DIRECTLY ON THE PHONE. DON’T RELY ON EMAIL ALONE.”
VENDOR IMPERSONATION FRAUD

What Is It?
Vendor Impersonation Fraud can occur when a business, public-sector agency or entity, such as a municipal government agency or a public university/college, receives an unsolicited request, purportedly from a valid contractor, to update the payment information for that contractor. The update could be new routing and account information for ACH or wire payments, or a request to change the payment method from check to ACH or wire payment along with routing and account information. This type of request could come from fraudsters and not the contractor. Although any business entity could be the target of this type of social engineering attack, public-sector entities seem to be specifically targeted because their contracting information is oftentimes a matter of public record.

How It’s Done
  • Fraudster monitors a business, public-sector agency or entity for publicly available contracting or vendor information.
  • Fraudster contacts the entity by posing as a legitimate vendor or contractor to request updates or changes to payment information to an account held by the fraudster. Contact is made via email, fax, phone, or online form submission.
  • Fraudster uses the compromised email account to send payment instructions, resulting in funds being transferred into the fraudster’s account.

Avoid Being a Victim
  • Solid internal controls are key to guarding against these scams.
  • Understand these attacks can come via email, phone calls, faxes or letters in the mail. Don’t assume this is a cybersecurity issue.
  • Educate and train employees to recognize, question, and independently authenticate changes in payment instructions, requests for secrecy, or pressure to take action quickly. Authenticate requests to make payment or change payment information using existing contact information.
  • Review accounts frequently.
  • Initiate payments using dual controls.
  • Do not provide nonpublic business information on social media. Do not use the ‘reply’ option when authenticating emails for payment requests. Instead, use the ‘forward’ option and type in the correct email address or select from a known address book.
  • Make vendor payment forms available only via secure means or to known entities.
  • Require changes to payment account information be made or confirmed only by site administrators, and use methods like verification codes to existing contacts.
  • Do not ignore calls from a financial institution questioning the legitimacy of a payment.
PAYROLL IMPERSONATION FRAUD 
 
What Is It?
Fraudsters target individual employees by directing the employees to update or confirm their payroll information via a fake payroll platform that spoofs their employer’s actual payroll platform. In some cases, the fraudster may claim the employee must do one of these: view a confidential email from human resources or the payroll department, view changes to the employees account, or confirm that the account should not be deleted. In any case, when the employee logs in from a link or attachment in the email, the fraudsters then use the stolen employee credentials to change payment information in the real payroll platform. 

How It’s Done
  • Fraudster targets an employee by sending a phishing email that impersonates the employee’s human resources or payroll department, as well as the company’s payroll platform. The email directs the employee to log in to confirm or update payroll information, including bank account information.
  • Employee clicks the link or opens the attachment within the email and confirms or updates the payroll information.
  • The fraudster then uses the stolen login credentials to change payment information to an account controlled by the fraudster.

Avoid Being a Victim
  • Employers should alert employees to watch for phishing attacks and suspicious malware links.
  • Employees should be directed to check the actual sender email address, rather than just looking at the subject line, to verify that the email came from their employer or payroll service provider.
  • Employees should not reply to any suspicious email; instead have them forward the email to a company security contact.
  • Employees should not enter their login credentials when clicking on a link or opening an attachment in an email.
  • Employer self-service platforms should authenticate requests to change payment information using previously known contact information. For example, requiring users to enter a second password that is emailed to an existing email address, or to use a hard token code.
  • Employer self-service platforms also should reauthenticate users accessing the system from unrecognized devices, using previously known contact information.
  • Set up alerts on self-service platforms for administrators so that unusual activity may be caught before money is lost. Alerts may include when banking information is changed, and multiple changes that use the same new routing number or identical account numbers.
  • Employers should consider validating employees’ new Direct Deposit information by sending ACH prenotification transactions.
CONTACT US WITH QUESTIONS
Let us know if you have any questions. We are happy to provide you with additional information on how to protect your account and comply with network rules and regulations.
Dan “Dutch" Duchnowski
Chief Marketing Officer
Chief Deposit Officer
1400 Sam Nunn Boulevard
Perry, GA 31069
O: (478) 971-8031
M: (678) 620-5717
Tracy Nesmith
Treasury Management Specialist
Assistant Vice President, AAP
105 Commerce Street
Hawkinsville, GA 31036
O: (478) 892-4024
M: (229) 938-0927
About Planters Bank:
Founded in 1896, Planters Bank, the 8th oldest financial institution in Georgia, is headquartered in Cordele, Georgia, and operates seven full-service locations throughout Middle Georgia. Follow us on Twitter @bankPFB and Facebook @PlantersFirstBank.

Contact Planters Bank Toll-Free at (833) 732-8351 (833.PFB.TEL1) or email us.

Member FDIC | Equal Housing Lender | Bank NMLS#500174