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.
PEFCU please call us immediately at XXXX regarding restrictions placed on your account.
Please Note: PEFCU will never send an e-mail, text message or make calls requesting account number, PIN or debit/credit card information. Never respond to a request for this information. If you would like more information or wish to report that you have been a victim of a scam, please call us at 800-226-6673 or e-mail us at: Info@pefcu.com.
Also, you may file a complaint at www.ftc.gov, and then visit the FTC’s Identity Theft web site at www.consumer.gov to learn how you can minimize risk of damage from ID theft.
If you have inadvertently given away personal or financial information, you may take steps to protect your identity now at www.antiphishing.org or call 877.ID.THEFT (877.438.4338).
Pop-up Windows – showing up while visiting www.pefcu.com
Financial Institutions have begun hearing complaints that members/customers are seeing “Pop-up” windows while they are visiting the web page. These “Pop-up” windows are targeting Financial Institution web sites to get member/customer personal information. Please do not give out any information regarding your account: Account numbers, PIN numbers, Card numbers, or Expirations dates – as well as – any personal information. We will never contact you or allow solicitations from us through a “Pop-up” window, through phone calls, e-mail, or through text messages.
These “Pop-up” windows are a caused by a compromise of the member PC and not the Credit Union systems.
If you have received a “Pop-up” window while visiting our web site, please report this incident to us at 1-800-226-6673 or e-mail us at: security.monitor@pefcu.com
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.
