U.S. Bank's YouTube Yutz Shows the Perils of Poor Security

U.S. Bancorp has a new star — Tami, who suffers from a terrible case of "TMI."

The Minneapolis bank has produced four new banking security awareness videos that feature Tami freely sharing personal information, such as her mother's maiden name and the street where she grew up. This information is the sort of thing that criminals could use to steal her identity and compromise her bank account.

In one video, Tami attends an "Oversharers Anonymous" support group meeting where she tells everyone that she had suspicious activity on her account after she provided confidential information to the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In another video, Tami scares off her date by rambling on about herself, including how she uses the password "Ilovecats27" for everything. She is even scolded in another video for falling for a classic scammer's ruse of being told she inherited money from an unknown relative in another country.

The bank also provides tips so viewers can avoid Tami's recurring fate of being a victim of fraud. U.S. Bank is distributing the videos via Facebook and YouTube. Facebook visitors can enter a drawing to win U.S. Bank rewards cards by submitting their count of how many times Tami shares too much information.

"These videos are a different way for us to share an important security message with the public," said Greg Wood, chief information security officer at U.S. Bank, in a news release on Wednesday. "Consumers regularly see traditional, fear-based messages about their personal data. This awareness campaign takes a different approach, with lighthearted, simple and memorable messages inviting our viewers to think about how they share their information online and encouraging them to adopt important basic security practices."