Another round of robo-call scams hit CUs

MADISON, Wis. (10/28/08)--Credit unions in four states are reporting members and nonmembers have been hit with another round of e-mails and "robo-call" scams, aimed at tricking consumers out of their personal financial information. Among the reports:

• In Green Bay, Wis., Harbor CU received hundreds of phone calls from members Saturday morning saying they had received phone calls between 10 p.m. and midnight Friday from an automated dialer. The robo-calls said their account numbers had been compromised and asked them to enter a credit or debit card number and their personal identification number (PIN). (WBAY.com Oct. 25 and Green Bay Press Gazette Oct. 27).

  President Mike DeGrand told local media that the timing of the calls should be a clue--financial institutions don't call that late and financial institutions already have the card information.

  The Brown County Sheriff's Department also received dozens of complaints and said there has been a rash of phone scams reported recently.

• In Morris, Ill., police received calls on Oct. 20 from Morris Community CU and from several local residents that a telephone scam was claiming the individuals' credit union account had been frozen and that account information was needed to reactivate the account. A similar set of calls targeting the $23.8 million asset credit union occurred on July 17, Morris police said. In both instances, the caller generates the credit union's telephone number on recipients' caller ID (Morris Daily Herald Oct. 22).

• An e-mail phishing scheme targeted $17 million asset Allegheny-Ludlum Brackenridge FCU, Brackenridge, Pa., according to the Pennsylvania Credit Union Association (Life is a Highway Oct. 27 and Valley News Dispatch Oct. 26). Most of the recipients of the message were not credit union members. The message says the recipients' online account has expired and asks them to click on a site to provide their account number. Earlier last week, State Attorney General Tom Corbett also issued a warning about e-mail phishing scams disguised as messages from financial institutions and related to investment or retirement accounts.

• Earlier this month, the Mason City, Iowa, police department reported receiving numerous reports of a credit-card scam by phone targeting members of $41 million asset North Iowa Community CU. The automated message reads out a person's name and says that person's credit card has been deactivated. It then asks the recipient to call and enter the credit card number. The calls come from out of state. One man dialed in his information and found unauthorized charges on his card, said police (Associated Press Newswires Oct. 2).

Resource Links

CUNA Identity Theft Resources