The following alerts have been brought to our attention by members or the media. Please contact us at 1-800-226-6673 if you feel you have been a victim of any of these alerts or if you would like to report a new fraudulent scam.

Lottery/Sweepstakes Scam

Letters are being sent to consumers nationwide, claiming that they have won a certain amount of money from a lottery or sweepstakes outside of the United States. Included with the letter is a check made out for a portion of the amount won. The victim is instructed to deposit the check, and then wire a smaller amount of cash to the perpetrator to cover the processing, surcharges, and/or taxes. This is where the scam artists make their money. They take the cash the victim wired then disappear. By this time the victim’s financial institution realizes the check is counterfeit, and in addition to what they sent the perpetrator, the consumer usually has spent a good amount of the money they deposited and are unable to pay the bank back.

The best way to protect yourself is to avoid this scam altogether – remember receiving winnings from a lottery or sweepstakes outside of the United States you never entered is not only unlikely, it’s illegal! So, shred any such letters and do not respond. If it looks too good to be true, it is! Currently, there is almost nothing police can do about the crime – but any information can be reported to the Office of the Inspector General at www.usps.com as it is considered a type of mail fraud.

Click Here to view an example of a Lottery Scam from Spain sent to one of our members.

Click Here to view an example of a Lottery Scam from China sent to one of our members.

NCUA Reports Fraudulent Phishing E-Mails

Please be on the alert for a potential Phishing E-Mail scam. The E-Mail appears to be from NCUA (National Credit Union Administration). The E-Mail claims that because of a recent phishing attack and identity theft, NCUA is performing maintenance on its security measures. It then asks the recipient to “verify” their account information to eliminate any potential risk through a link provided that appears to be on the NCUA secure website, or via a form that is attached and requested to be filled out and mailed in. Of course, both are a ploy to gather information that possibly could be used for identity theft or fraudulent transactions.

This E-Mail is False. NCUA warns recipients that it would never send an E-Mail asking credit union members for such personal information. Anyone who receives an E-Mail that purports to be from NCUA and asks for account information should consider it to be a fraudulent attempt to obtain their personal account data for an illegal purpose and should not click on the links in the message, and the message should be deleted.