Current Scams

Wednesday, September 2, 2009 — Property Tax Savings Fraud scam. We have been getting inquiries from members regarding a company called the Property Tax Review Board. They are offering to reduce a homeowner’s property taxes for a fee of $189.00. This is a scam. You can read the Nevada Attorney General’s alert regarding this scam by clicking here.

Monday, August 24, 2009 — Smishing scam. A member received a text purportedly from the credit union indicating that their credit card has been deactivated. The text message directed them to a phone number where they where asked to key in their card information. This is a Smishing scam. See our Phishing / Smishing / Vishing / Pharming section further below for more information.

Phishing / Smishing / Vishing / Pharming

“Phishing” is a virtual trap set by cyber thieves that uses official-looking e-mails to lure you to fake web sites and trick you into revealing your personal information.

“Smishing” is a form of criminal activity using techniques similar to phishing. The name is derived from “SMS phISHING”. SMS (Short Message Service) is the technology used for text messages on cell phones.

Similar to phishing, smishing uses cell phone text messages to deliver the “bait” to get you to divulge your personal information. The “hook” (the method used to actually “capture” your information) in the text message may be a web site URL, however it has become more common to see a phone number that connects to automated voice response system.

“Vishing” uses telephone systems. A vishing scam occurs when a consumer receives a recorded message telling them a credit card and/or financial institution account has been breached and to immediately call a number provided in the message. The phone number leads the consumer to a fraudulent call center where people are asked to supply or verify pertinent financial account, social security or credit card information.

Like phishing, “pharming” coerces victims into visiting a fake web site and supplying information. However, instead of tricking recipients into clicking on an e-mail link, pharming can secretly redirect victims to a fraudulent web site directly from their web browser. Pharming effectively eliminates the need for “bait” e-mails and is therefore potentially more dangerous than “normal” phishing scams and can cast a wider “net” in which to snare victims. Even phishing-savvy web users could fall victim to a pharming scam without realizing it.

In order to make pharming work, scammers may compromise a victim’s system directly by secretly installing malicious software on his or her computer or modifying the browser’s hosts file. This means that even if you manually enter the web address of your bank or financial institution directly into your browser, or click on a saved bookmark, it is possible that a pharming attack could cause your browser to unobtrusively redirect to a fraud site. If the scam site is made to resemble the legitimate web site of the targeted institution, a victim could enter account numbers, passwords and other sensitive information before he or she realized what was happening.

Currently, pharming does not appear to be as common as phishing. To help protect yourself from pharming, you should make sure that the secure web site you are visiting has a valid certificate of authority from a trusted service such as VeriSign. Before entering sensitive personal data on the web site, click the “lock” icon in the browser’s status bar to view the certificate. Ensure that the name on the certificate corresponds to the site you are viewing. You should also run anti-virus and anti-spyware software, keep your operating system and browser updated with the latest security patches and use a reliable firewall.

NFCU does not ask credit union members for personal information. Anyone who receives a supposed e-mail or phone call from NFCU that asks for account information should consider it a fraudulent attempt to obtain their personal account data for an illegal purpose and should not follow the instructions in the e-mail, letter or phone call.

If you inadvertently respond and provide confidential account information, please notify NFCU immediately. You should change affected accounts and PINs, and take any additional action recommended to protect your account(s).

If you feel that you have received a fraudulent NFCU e-mail, please forward the entire e-mail message to fraud-security@nevadafederal.org.

Additionally, you can file formal complaints concerning any suspected fraudulent e-mail with the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) at http://www.ic3.gov. The IC3 is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National White Collar Crime Center and the Bureau of Justice Assistance.

Fake Lottery Scam – “You Won the Lottery”

Illegal lotteries operate from locations all over the world and notify “winners”, with enticing language that they’ve won a lump-sum of cash or that they could win money by using a secret system to win, via the mail, phone or Internet. Sometimes the enticements are about phony lotteries in the United States, but they can be from as far away as Australia and Europe. These lottery solicitations violate US law, which prohibits the cross-border sale or purchase of lottery tickets by phone or mail.

• Never give your credit card or bank account numbers to anyone promising lottery cash prizes or memberships.
• Never respond to a letter, e-mail or phone call from someone who offers you a guarantee of winning a prize.
• If you are going to participate in a “lottery pool”, use caution and do so only with people you know and trust.
• Never redeem a lottery ticket for someone you do not know. Some scams are operated by groups of individuals who travel around the country, approaching victims with a wide range of tales.

More info…

“Congratulations! You have won the lottery!”

These are words that we would all love to hear. Becoming rich that quickly is something that many people dream of, but some things are too good to be true. One way that fraudsters like to deceive people is by convincing them that something great has happened to them. There are variations on this scheme, but it is substantially the same, no matter how you look at it.

Imagine, you have had a rough day at work. You come home and check your mail. Along with your usual bills, you find an envelope with your name on it. The stamp has come from Canada or Great Britain. You open it and find a letter and a check made payable to you between two and five thousand dollars. The letter is informing you that you have won the lottery! All you have to do is cash the check at your bank and pay the lottery tax by wiring money overseas. Once you do this, they will send the winnings to you.

“Can this be true?” you ask yourself. You doubt that it is real, but then the stack of unpaid bills on the table catches your eye. “What do I have to loose?” you think. So, you take the check down to your branch and cash it. You follow the instructions on the letter and wire the money via Western Union or Money Gram. A few days later, you get a letter from the collections department at the Credit Union. It informs you that you have had a check bounce and your account is negative. Now on top of your usual bills, you have to pay the Credit Union back money that you didn’t even get to spend!

This happens all too often. ALL of these letters that come with checks are fraud schemes. The stories vary, but they are all bad. Sometimes they say that you have had a relative that you have never heard of pass away and leave you a large sum of money. All you have to do is cash the check and wire back the inheritance tax. Others may seem legitimate. Some even advertise as secret shopping or work from home companies on jobsites like Monster.com.

Though the stories change, the scheme is the same. You get a check in the mail and you cash it at the bank. Then you wire most of it to someone, usually overseas. Being aware of these schemes can help protect you from loosing money that you cannot afford to loose. We cannot stop unscrupulous people from using these tactics, but we can be aware so that we do not fall victim to them ourselves. Some things really can be too good to be true.

Fake Check Scams

The National Consumers League reports that fake check scams now rank as one of the top most common Internet fraud scams. Fake check scams are clever ploys designed to steal your money. You can avoid becoming a victim by recognizing how the scam works and understanding your responsibility for the checks that you deposit in your account. If someone you don’t know wants to pay you by check but wants you to wire some of the money back, beware! It’s a scam that could cost you thousands of dollars.

How do fake check scams work?

There are many variations of these scams, but they usually start with someone offering to:

• Buy something you advertised for sale via newspaper ads or the internet.
• Pay you to work at home.
• Give you an “advance” on a sweepstakes you’ve won.
• Give you the first payment on the millions you’ll receive for agreeing to transfer money in a foreign country to your bank account for safekeeping.

How do scammers get my money?

• The amount of the check or money order you receive may be more than you’re owed, so you’re instructed to deposit it and wire the rest to the scammer or to someone else.
• Or you’re told to wire some of the money back to pay a fee to claim your “winnings.”
• In some cases, the scammer promises to transfer money directly to your bank account, so you provide your account information for an electronic funds transfer. Instead, the crook sends your bank a phony check or money order with instructions to deposit it in your account.
• When you check your balance, it looks like the funds have arrived.

How can I protect myself from fake check scams?

• There is no legitimate reason for someone who is giving you money to ask you to wire money back — that’s a clear sign that it’s a scam.
• If a stranger wants to pay you for something, insist on a cashier’s check for the exact amount, preferably from a local bank or one with a branch in your area.
• Often times these checks look like they’re from legitimate business accounts. The companies whose names appear may be real, but someone has altered the checks without their knowledge.

If you think someone is trying to pull a fake check scam, don’t deposit it — report it! Contact us at (800) 388-3000 and the National Consumers League’s National Fraud Information Center at http://www.fraud.org or call (800) 876-7060.