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Please be aware! The following fraudulent email has recently been received by many people, including some PGCCFCU members. The email comes with a form attached that requests banking account information in order to deposit your refund:
Letters entitled "FINAL COMPENSATION NOTIFICATIONS" are being sent out on the letterhead of a company calling itself Alliance World Brokers, Inc. Please be aware that this is a scam. The check and the award are fraudulent!
The holiday season is a popular time for scams. Recently non members and members of PGCFCU have been contacted by scam artists in “smishing” attacks through text messages. In a smishing attack, members will receive a text message directing them to call a number regarding their federal credit union debit card. Once members respond, they are told there may be a possible fraud on the account and are asked to provide their card number and other personal information. Remember, PGCFCU will never contact you through a text message requesting information about your accounts. We already have it! Please contact PGCFCU immediately if you have received one of these texts.
Please be aware that we received a call this morning from a non member stating that she received a check with a Credit Union employee's signature and wanted to see if she could cash it at the Credit Union. According to the individual, she received this check as a mystery shopper promotion. These checks are fraudulent and will not be accepted. If you have any questions or need assistance verifying the validity of these checks please contact us.
Random individuals and/or companies may have received a falsified e-mail with the subject title “Rejected ACH Transaction.” This e-mail appears to be from NACHA – The Electronic Payments Association telling them that there is a problem with an ACH transaction they have originated. The e-mail includes a link which redirects the individual to a fake web page which appears like the NACHA website and contains a link which is almost certainly an executable virus with malware. Please be aware that the e-mail did not originate from NACHA, the website is not that of NACHA’s. Do not click on the link in the email.
Copies of Prince Georges Community Federal Credit Union share withdrawal checks have recently been involved in a sweepstakes scam.
Please be aware. Click here to view a copy of the check.
DO NOT DIAL THE CALL BACK NUMBER PROVIDED OR THE NUMBER THAT IS ON YOUR CALLER ID... We have had a few members call us stating that they received a phone call stating that their debit card has been compromised/deactivated.
Credit Union National Association (CUNA) is aware of phone calls, text messages, and emails being made about:
These e-mails and text messages ask that the customer call a number in order to have their account reactivated. Some may request that you leave callback information or provide your financial information directly. All of these messages are fraudulent. Please do not respond to these messages. The Credit Union National Association is the trade association for credit unions in the US. CUNA does not maintain any type of customer/member financial information. Additionally, your financial institution would never solicit your personal identification information via email. If you did respond to such a solicitation, you should contact your financial institution directly using the local phone number provided by your financial institution. More Information on Internet Fraud Report a suspicious email
Recognizing fraudulent callers is important; reporting them to the appropriate law enforcement authorities is critical, too. Visit the Bureau of Consumer Protection web site to learn more about how to protect yourself from phone fraud.
PGCFCU wants to help you keep personal information safe. Criminals have developed several clever tools to steal your personal information over the internet. Below are helpful general tips and keywords that will aid you in safeguarding your personal information and computer from identity thieves, phishing and scams. What is e-mail fraud? Phishing e-mails are made to appear that they are from a legitimate company, typically a financial services organization, like a bank, credit union, or investment brokerage. Others state to be from other organizations that perform financial transactions using personal data; the most common of these claims to be from companies like PayPal, eBay, and America Online (AOL). The phishing e-mails typically inform you that account information needs to be updated and that action must be taken immediately. The information they ask for ranges from user name and password all the way to name, address, and credit card information, depending on which legitimate company they are posing as. How to recognize e-mail fraud. Companies with which you have no prior relation. Generic message The criminals can get your e-mail address many ways, but the most common is through viruses and worms planted on other users' computers. The viruses gather e-mail information from the address book of infected computer's e-mail client (like Outlook or Messenger) and report this back to the criminals. The viruses typically infect tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of computers at one time so given the size of most people's address books, the criminals can build a list pretty quickly. If you're on someone's address book and their computer is infected, the criminals can get your e-mail address. Requests for personal or secure information. Where can you see samples of phishing e-mails? Which companies are most often spoofed in phishing e-mails? What should you do if you receive a phishing e-mail? If you want to take some course of action, report the phishing e-mail to the legitimate company or organization that has been spoofed in the e-mail. Most have online mechanisms, either forms or e-mail addresses, where you can communicate this to them. Legitimate companies generally post their phone number, usually a toll-free number; on their web site should you decide to call them instead. You can also file a complaint with the Internet Fraud Complaint Center at www.ifccfbi.gov. They will probably not be able to address your specific incident, but by providing information to them they can warn others and investigate the crime. Where can you find more information about phishing?
Alert NCUA does not ask credit unions 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 follow the instructions in the e-mail. PGCFCU will never contact you though email or over the phone to verify account information. If you are solicited for confidential information in this manner do not give out your personal account information. If you responded to such an e-mail and provided any confidential account information pertaining to your PGCFCU
account, please notify PGCFCU immediately at 301-627-2666 or 1-800-952-7428. You will be instructed by one
of our staff as to the appropriate course of action to be taken, depending upon what information was provided
to the scam, which may include anything from changing your PIN to possibly closing any compromised share accounts. |
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