Identity theft is a serious crime. The Federal Trade Commission, the nation’s consumer protection agency, estimates as many as 10 million Americans have their identities stolen each year.

When someone steals your personal information and uses it without your knowledge to commit fraud and other crimes, it can cost you time and money and it can destroy your credit and ruin your good name. Your community banks certainly don’t want that to happen.

In an effort to educate our customers on how to protect your identities, the six banks in the Miss-Lou have joined to host three informational sessions on protecting your identity.

Speakers from Britton & Koontz Bank, Concordia Bank, Delta Bank, Regions Bank, Tensas State Bank and United Mississippi Bank will present three sessions beginning at 9 a.m. Thursday at Copiah-Lincoln’s Natchez campus Nelson Multipurpose Room.

The session will be repeated at 3 p.m. and again at 5:30 p.m.

Each bank’s representative will focus on a different area of identity vulnerability and give action steps each of us might take to deter identity thieves by safeguarding our information, to detect suspicious activity on our accounts and statements and to defend against ID theft as soon as one might suspect it.

We cordially invite you to attend one of our free sessions.

Please bring a friend and spread the word throughout your business, social and church networks.

We feel you’ll learn the steps each of us can take to fight identity theft, how identity thieves work, and what you can do to make this crime more difficult to commit.

Join us at Natchez’s Copiah Lincoln on Thursday to deter, detect and defend your identity.

Marty Seibert is vice president and marketing officer at Britton & Koontz Bank, a member of the Miss-Lou Banking Alliance.