Phishing and smishing are schemes routinely used by criminals to facilitate one of the leading forms of fraud: Identity Theft. The term "phishing" is defined as fishing for confidential information. "Smishing" is when fraudulent SMS text messages are sent to cell phones to solicit confidential information.

These scams take place when consumers receive an unsolicited e-mail to convince consumers into disclosing sensitive personal or business information. Examples of phishing and smishing are social security numbers, bank account and routing numbers, credit card numbers, ATM card numbers, ATM pin numbers (PIN), passwords, and other private data. According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the unsolicited e-mails give the appearance of being from legitimate employees and businesses. Report any suspicious activity to the FTC; send the actual fraudulent e-mail to: uce@ftc.gov or call 1.877.382.4357 (1.877.FTC.HELP).

GrandSouth Bank employees will not ask for confidential information over the telephone or Internet without proper identification.

If you have any questions, please contact customerservice@grandsouth.com