In order to protect yourself against debit card fraud, here are a few helpful reminders regarding Fraud Trends.

* Hotels are the "hot" target for debit card fraud. Hackers have successfully hacked into several of the major hotel chains' data bases. Hundreds of debit card fraud cases have been linked back to a common point of purchase at the major hotel chains. The fraudsters capture the card info from the data base and create fake cards that are sold all over the world.

"Free trial offer, just pay shipping and handling"- There are thousands of these offers online and 99% of them are bogus. The two most popular offers seen are for Acai berry diet drugs and Dazzling White Teeth Whitener. They both offer a 30 day trial and money back guarantee.

*Job Offers- Fraudsters are capitalizing on the economic times and natural disasters. Fraud analyst have seen an increase in online/email offers for mystery shoppers, gulf oil spill clean-up workers, disaster relief workers, etc. The job offers require that you send money for a list of merchants needing shoppers or government contracting agencies, etc. The general rule is that if the "job offer" requires you to send money first, it's a scam.

*Stranded Friend- Emails or texts from a friend that has ended up in trouble while traveling. Fraudsters get personal and contact information from social networking sites and use it to blast out emails and texts appearing to be from your friend stating that they need your help, send money fast.

*Phishing-eBay, PayPal, Amazon, FaceBook are currently the most popular targets for phishing scams. The phishing email request you to download a form or follow a link to verify your account information.

In order to protect against fraud......

*Keep all your contact information at the bank current, phone numbers, addresses and email.

*Know who you are providing your personal information to. Do not provide it in a response to unsolicited emails, texts or phone calls. Grandview Bank will never send emails requesting customer information.

*Do not share your online banking user ids or passwords with anyone-not even family.

*Do not share your ATM or Debit card PIN numbers with anyone-not even family.

*Review your account activity regularly using your monthly statements or online banking. Notify the bank immediately if you discover a problem.