How do I know if I’m being phished?

Phishing is a type of scam that involves communications from someone pretending to be a trusted person or business in an attempt to steal your personal and/or financial information. 

What does phishing look like? 

• The message requests personal information or asks you to reply with your username, email address, and/or password. Chime will never ask for this sort of information in an email, text, phone call, or social media message.
• Phrases like “free money” and images showing luxury items or piles of cash are signs that what you’re reading or looking at is a scam.
• The sender's email doesn't match the name of the company. Sometimes, an email will say “Chime Banking” instead of just Chime.
• The URL doesn't match the company's website or contains links to fake login pages or password reset pages. 
• The message looks significantly different from other messages. Most of our communications follow a similar style or template. 
• The message is unsolicited and contains an attachment. Never click on an attachment from an unknown sender. If you don't trust a link in an email, don't click it. Instead, go directly to the website from your browser or to the app.
  

How do I protect myself?

• Follow the saying, “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.” 
• Never share usernames and/or passwords with anyone, including your close family and friends.
• Don’t write any identifying information down on paper or in any other non-secure place. 
• Never share personal information with strangers or on non-secure websites.
• Remember to enable push notifications in the Chime app. We’ll alert you there if we notice any suspicious activity.
• Monitor your account regularly either online or through your mobile app because you know your activity better than anyone.
• Be extra careful during tax season (between January 1 and about April 30 of each year). Scam activity increases at this time.
• Consider shredding any documents with personal and confidential information on them.