Beware of Scams

A common scam that is targeting area residents is checks being delivered via mail with instructions to send a portion of that check to another location, usually by Western Union™, MoneyGram™ or money order. It may seem legitimate because the instructions also state to keep a small dollar amount for your time and trouble spent. However, the check you deposited into your Catholic Federal Credit Union account may come back as a fraudulent item. If you withdrew the funds, your account will be debited the amount of the check, which often times results in a large sum of money being owed to the financial institution.

Other Common Scams Include:

Lottery Checks – these mailings generally consist of Lottery winnings, sometimes from a reputable lottery organization or foreign country. An important question to ask yourself is, “have I ever played this lottery?”

Work from home scams – be very careful when contacting agencies offering “Work from Home” opportunities. Scam artists have found it easy to prey on the unemployed.

Recorded phone calls – phone calls requesting that you enter your credit card number, expiration date, and/or security code are not legitimate phone calls. Financial institutions already have this information.

E-mail solicitations – messages received via e-mail requesting personal account information should be immediately deleted. Do not click on links within these messages as it could redirect you to a hazardous site.

Text messages – cell phone text messages notifying you of a problem with your debit or credit card are becoming popular. Typically these messages have included a phone number to call to verify personal card information. If you bank with a financial institution that offers text messages, contact them directly to check out the situation.

Online Auction sites – if you sell and item using an online auction site, such as Ebay or Craig’s List, be cautious of accepting payment via check. Some scam artists have found success in sending a check made payable for more than the item was sold for and request that you send the overage back to them.

If you have received a check in the mail and question the validity of the item please notify the credit union immediately - we are here to assist you and can take necessary steps to verify that item and protect your account.

* Remember to be cautious when giving out any personal information over the phone, Internet or in-person. CFCU will never solicit members for personal or account information.*

Internet & Email Security Tips

• Be suspicious of any e-mail with urgent requests for personal financial information unless the e-mail is digitally signed (you can’t be sure it wasn’t forged or ‘spoofed’). Phishers typically: (1) include upsetting or exciting (but false) statements in their emails to get people to react immediately; (2) ask for confidential information such as usernames, passwords, credit card numbers, social security numbers, account numbers, etc.; and (3) do not personalize the e-mail message (while valid messages from your credit union should be).
• Always ensure that you’re using a secure website when submitting credit card or other sensitive information via your Web browser. To make sure you’re on a secure Web server, check the beginning of the Web address in your browsers address bar – it should be https:// rather than just http://.
• Consider installing a Web browser tool bar to help protect you from known phishing fraud websites.
• Regularly log into your online accounts and don’t wait for as long as a month before you check each account.
• Regularly check your financial institution, credit, and debit card statements to ensure that all transactions are legitimate. If anything is suspicious, contact your financial institution (s) and card issuers.
• Ensure that your browser is up to date and security patches applied.
• Always report “phishing” or “spoofed” e-mails to the following groups:
  • Forward the e-mail to reportphishing@antiphishing.com
  • Forward the e-mail to the Federal Trade Commission at spam@uce.gov
  • Forward the e-mail to the “abuse” e-mail address at the company that is being spoofed
  • When forwarding spoofed messages, always include the entire original e-mail with its original header information intact