"Vishing" Schemes
Vishing is the criminal practice of using social engineering and Voice over IP (VoIP) to gain access to private personal and financial information from the public for the purpose of financial reward. The term is a combination of "voice" and phishing. Vishing exploits the public's trust in telephone services, which have traditionally terminated in physical locations which are known to the telephone company, and associated with a bill-payer. The victim is often unaware that VoIP allows for caller ID spoofing, inexpensive, complex automated systems and anonymity for the bill-payer. Vishing is typically used to steal credit card numbers or other information used in identity theft schemes from individuals.
Vishing is very hard for legal authorities to monitor or trace. To protect themselves, consumers are advised to be highly suspicious when receiving messages directing them to call and provide credit card or bank numbers. Rather than provide any information, the consumer is advised to contact their bank or credit card company directly to verify the validity of the message.
Most often, consumers are not being targeted because of a relationship with a particular business, but are randomly called due to their location and telephone exchange.
How Cyber-Criminals Operate
To increase the number of responses, cyber-criminals often include upsetting or exciting statements in their voice messages. They want people to react immediately and respond with the desired information without thinking. To protect yourself, take the time to examine the claims made in the phone message. If you question any call please Contact the credit union.
"Phishing" Schemes
"Phishing" is a kind of credit and debit card fraud. By pretending to email from a bank or similar site, scammers "fish" for account numbers, passwords, Social Security numbers, etc. They trick consumers into divulging sensitive information so that unlawful charges can be made on the consumers' accounts.
A number of fraudulent email messages that claim to be from Potlatch No.1 Federal Credit Union have been forwarded to us by our members. These schemes change frequently and often have links or attachments with links. Users who click on the links are taken to look-alike or "spoofed" sites where they are asked to enter personal data.
To help protect yourself always type in our website address www.p1fcu.org manually into the address bar. NEVER click on a link in an e-mail stating your information needs to be updated. We will NEVER ask for your Mothers Maiden Name or Credit Card number online. If you question any form please Contact the credit union.
What does a phishing email look like?
Below is a sample of a phishing e-mail.
Account has been compromised e-mail |
