Communications Committee
Protect Yourself Against Scams
Dear Friends,
We are reading about the growing number of financial scams and are concerned that members of our community may be vulnerable.
Cybercriminals are targeting bank customers directly through known and trusted channels of communication, such as telephone, text message and email. They may “spoof” your bank’s telephone number, so that your bank’s name appears on your caller ID. Cybercriminals use this tactic to gain your trust.
Increased awareness of financial scams can help you protect yourself. If you receive an unexpected telephone call, text message or e-mail that appears to be from your bank, take the following precautions:
NEVER provide personal or financial information (i.e., social security numbers, card numbers, expiration dates, online banking usernames or passwords, one-time-passcodes) in response to telephone calls, e-mails or text messages.
NEVER trust your telephone caller ID. Cybercriminals can easily spoof a telephone number to make it appear as though the call is coming from any number. Before you provide any personal information to a caller, hang up and call the bank or credit card company back using a number you trust, such as the telephone number on the back of your bank or credit card.
NEVER click links provided in emails or text messages. Doing so could take you to a fake website that appears to be legitimate. It may solicit personal information or install malicious viruses on your device. Always go to the company’s website through a trusted source, such as typing in the company’s website directly or locating it through a trusted search engine.
NEVER provide a passcode that is sent to your phone to someone who calls you. Criminals attempt to trick individuals into revealing passcodes by saying that they need to “verify your identity.” The criminals could use your identity or information to open accounts or access accounts associated with you. They need the passcode to complete a transaction or to access your accounts.
NEVER provide any personal information to someone who calls you, regardless of the “story” or reason they provide. Hang up and call the company back through a telephone number that you trust.
Be careful, Friends,
Your Communications Committee
This message was adapted from a communication by Dollar Savings Bank.
The New Morningside Website is Live
Though there are a number of improvements we’d still like to make and plenty of feedback we’d still like to collect from the community and act on, the Communications Committee has decided to launch the new Morningside Meeting website at https://morningsidemeeting.org.
Our priority is facilitating communication among Morningside Friends. We want to make it easier for committees to coordinate their work and tell the community about their progress. We want to ensure that Morningsiders stay aware of upcoming events. We want them to share important news with each other. We believe that launching and starting to use the website now, even as it evolves, will immediately benefit the community. It will also help us shape the site according to our experiences and needs.
These features are already available on the site:
Committee sections with room for a description of the committee, events, posts, and committee-specific documents. These sections can be further customized as needed. Trained committee members can add documents directly to the site via Google Drive. Other are invited to submit documents via Google Form.
A calendar page, with all community events.
A News section, which can display posts from committees or any individual in the community. Trained contributors can add posts to the site themselves. Anyone can also submit a post to the site admins via Google Form.
A Documents section, with an archive of Newsletters, Business Minutes (incomplete as of this writing), State of the Meeting Minutes, and Memorial Minutes.
We’re asking committees to appoint a liason to the Communications Committee in the coming weeks. Scott will work with liasons to update the main text of their committee’s section of the site, and train them to add posts, documents, and calendar events. Liasons should contact Scott directly or email morningsidequakermeeting@gmail.com.
You can find documentation about how to contribute to the website on the project’s GitHub Page. Like the site itself, this documentation is evolving; we welcome corrections and suggestions that will improve it.
Friends interested reviewing the December presentation on the website prototype can view the Google Slides here.