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Using Social Media and Sharing Information Safely

Keep yourself safe and protect your personal information online by following these security tips.

Protect your personal information

Before responding to any request for personal, financial or account information, make sure you know who is asking and why they need it. Be extra careful if a request is made with an urgent or threatening tone. Criminals use this trick to get personal information to access your accounts or commit identity theft.

Ally will never send you an email asking for personal information, account information, a username or password. If you receive an email that appears to be from Ally requesting this information, please forward it to  abuse@ally.com .

Follow up on suspicious requests

If you're suspicious of any request, you should first confirm that the contact information is legitimate by checking your account documents or visiting the company’s web site. Then directly contact the company whose name is used in the request and ask if the request is valid.

If you think you provided personal or account information in response to a fraudulent email or website, be sure to change your password and any other authentication information like challenge questions and secret questions. Also, notify the financial institution where you have the account and monitor your account activity frequently.

Get more information about  what to do if fraud and identity theft happens to you .

Engage in social media responsibly

Think carefully before you provide personal details on social networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Never share information that financial institutions might use to identify you like your Social Security number (including the last 4 digits), date of birth, personal phone number, home address, where you were born or schools you attended. Criminals might use this information to gain access to your account or use it to open accounts in your name.

5 tips to make your social media experience safer:

  • Don't post photos that might include your debit/credit card, driver's license or other personal information.

  • Turn off location tags on social sites and post vacation photos after your trip to avoid alerting thieves that you are away from home.

  • Be selective about people you connect with on social media and only share posts with friends and known connections.

  • For mobile banking and other secure transactions, use your phone's data plan to connect wirelessly when entering passwords, credit card information or other details that you need to keep secure.

  • Remember that if it’s online once, it's online forever.

More Personal Security Tips

Suspicious Messages Managing Passwords and Verification Using Social Media and Sharing Information Safely Virus Protection for Your Devices Using Wi-Fi and Public Computers Securely Mobile Security Offline Precautions Additional Resources

Suspect Fraud?

Call the Ally Fraud Hotline at 1-833-226-1520 .