Remember, Dort Federal will NEVER ask members for their PIN.
At Dort Federal Credit Union, we want to make sure that your identity and your money are protected! The following guide is meant to help educate you on scammers’ tricks and methods so you can stay a step ahead.
For more tips and guidelines, use the Federal Trade Commission website, www.onguardonline.gov. Consumers can take interactive quizzes designed to enlighten them about identity theft, phishing, smishing, spam, and online-shopping scams. Elsewhere on the site, consumers can find detailed guidance on how to monitor their credit histories, use effective passwords and recover from identity theft.
If you have additional questions on how to keep your account safe, or suspect you may have been the victim of fraud or identity theft, contact Dort Federal at 810.767.8390 or 800.521.3796 or come in to any of our offices, and we will assist you.
Below are some of the common scams and frauds that you should be familiar with in order to keep your information safe.
Counterfeit Checks
Telephone scams
Mail Fraud
Phishing/Vishing
Text Messaging Scams
ATM Tampering
Security Tips
Counterfeit cashier’s checks supposedly issued by Dort Federal Credit Union are in circulation across the United States. There are several variations of the bogus checks, but the most common has the Dort Federal Credit Union name and logo.
Many, but not all, are being mailed by scammers to people selling items over the internet. The cashier’s check is usually made out for several thousand dollars more than the purchase price. The “buyer” requests that the seller immediately wire, via Western Union, the excess funds to a third party “shipping agent” to cover shipping charges for the item purchased. If the seller wires the money as requested, he or she will lose that money when the counterfeit check bounces.
Nobody will arrive to claim the purchased item; these scammers are only interested in the cash.
Other versions of this scam involve phony inheritances, sweepstakes, loans, investments, apartment rentals, and even marriage proposals. If an Internet acquaintance from a foreign country asks you to cash a check and wire the funds as a favor, you are being scammed.
If you have received a Dort Federal Credit Union cashier’s check that you suspect is counterfeit, do not deposit or attempt to cash the check until you have verified its authenticity, and do not wire transfer any money to anybody.
In this scam, someone claiming to be from the Security and Fraud Department of a credit card company, calls to verify the 3-digit security code on the back of your credit card. Often, the thief will even know your address and the financial institution that issued the card. They will ask for the code “in order to verify that you are in possession of your card.” Don’t be fooled. In reality, they want the code so that they can use it to purchase goods and services online.
Anytime the U.S. Mail is used to further a crime, no matter how the crime originated, the crime is considered mail fraud. This often takes the form of illegal sweepstakes or foreign lottery notifications, phony credit card offers, and advance-fee loan schemes. In most cases, you are asked to either purchase something or pay fees up front before you can receive whatever prize or service the scam advertises.
Criminals use fraudulent emails (known as phishing emails) that appear legitimate and are designed to deceive you into sharing personal or account information. The phishing emails often include logos of legitimate companies, content from their websites, and sometimes the names of real employees.
Many scammers randomly generate email addresses—that’s why you may have received fraudulent emails that appear to be from banks you do not have an account with. They may also obtain email addresses online from web pages, chat rooms, online auctions, directories, or other sources.
Dort Federal will never send unsolicited emails asking members to provide, update, or verify personal or account information, such as passwords, Social Security numbers, PINs, credit or debit card numbers, or other confidential information.
Identity thieves are now sending out mass text messages to mobile phone users in certain areas, attempting to get the user to share account information by way of a phone call or return text message. Several credit unions have been affected or named in these scams. It seems the thieves not only target the members of a credit union, but non-members as well, relying on confusion and scare tactics to steal personal information.
This crime involves tampering with an ATM in order to capture your ATM card and PIN.
Typically, thieves attach devices like skimmers and false fronts to obtain the information stored on the magnetic strip or to trap a card. To obtain your PIN, thieves hide miniature cameras near the keypad, install a fake keypad over the real one, or simply stand close to the ATM (“shoulder surfing”) where they can view your PIN entry.
In general, you should try to do the following in order to prevent fraud:
For more tips and guidelines, use the Federal Trade Commission website, www.onguardonline.gov. Consumers can take interactive quizzes designed to enlighten them about identity theft, phishing, smishing, spam, and online-shopping scams. Elsewhere on the site, consumers can find detailed guidance on how to monitor their credit histories, use effective passwords and recover from identity theft.
If you have additional questions on how to keep your account safe, or suspect you may have been the victim of fraud or identity theft, contact Dort Federal at 810.767.8390 or 800.521.3796 or come in to any of our offices, and we will assist you.
