First Choice Federal Credit Union warns members of multiple scam methods
Shayna Marti
Issue date: 2/9/09 Section: Community News
NEW CASTLE, Lawrence County--State police say a credit card scam in Lawrence County is now even more sophisticated as online theives target customers of the First Choice Federal Credit Union. Investigators say the scam artists are using a bogus message online, by text and on the phone.
On Friday, members of the credit union in New Castle received text messages telling them that a third party has accessed their account. The message advises members to go to a web site, which asks for personal account information.
CEO of First Choice Federal Credit Union Marilyn Wehr says the web site is a hoax and that members should disregard the message. The scam artists are using a phony web address is FirstChoiceFCU.net, whereas the credit union's real web address is FirstChoiceFCU.com.
"They had copied our web site, taken our logo, and everything on the site was fraudulent," Wehr said, "They had purchased the domain."
The FBI has now joined the investigation, and according to Wehr, the fake web site is based in Portugal.
With the help of the FBI, the credit union has now shut down the fake web site.
Members of the credit union are reminded to disregard any phone calls or text messages that ask for personal account information.
http://media.www.wcn247.com/media/storage/paper1389/news/2009/02/09/CommunityNews/Slick.Thieves.Continue.Credit.Union.Scam-3620260.shtml
2 comments:
These types of scams are becoming increasingly common with on the internet. Please, everyone, never give out your personal info without verification. If someone calls claiming to be your bank, look up the phone number and call the bank back, rather than give it to them yourself!
Mike
The worst part about these scams is that most often the people who are lured in the easiest are the elderly and those whom don't know these types of scams exist.
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