Thursday, September 8, 2016 The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) has received consumer calls about suspicious text messages claiming to come from the NCUA.
The messages read: “National Credit Union Administration Alert for (recipient's phone number). Contact 844-234-5445.” Other fraudulent phone numbers to be alert for are 855-340-1398 and 844-906-0773.
These texts are not communications from NCUA. The agency does not seek personal information through the internet or on the telephone.
What to do:
If you receive one of these text messages do not reply to the message and simply delete it.
You may be concerned that a criminal knows your phone number and that you are a credit union member. However, the way these scams work is actually very simple in that the criminals use computers to “dial” random phone numbers knowing that many people are credit union members. Since the computer sends the text messages very efficiently, the crooks can dial thousands of numbers in a short period of time. The only way the crooks can go any further is if someone calls or text them back.
Additional information:
Consumers can contact the NCUA's Consumer Assistance Center at 1-800-755-1030 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Eastern if they receive one of these messages. They may also contact the Internet Crime Complaint Center, a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National White Collar Crime Center. In addition, the NCUA operates an online Fraud Prevention Center that offers information about avoiding frauds and scams on its MyCreditUnion.gov website. Also, anyone who suspects that they have become a victim of identity theft because of this scam, should immediately contact the three major credit bureaus and request a fraud alert be placed on your credit report: Equifax (888-766-0008), Experian (888-397-3742), and TransUnion (800-680-7289).
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