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Examples of Fraudulent Emails and Scams
Here are some of the latest scams and fraudulent activities:
Confirm Email Address, Account Information or Identity
In many email scams, you are requested to confirm your email address, account information or your identity for one of many reasons. These can include:
- New account registration
- Change in email address or password
- Account information has been amended
- Numerous login attempts—account restricted
- Your account was accessed by one or more foreign IP addresses
The email provides a link to what appears to be a Dover Federal site but is really a fraudulent Web site. This is an attempt to steal your personal information or download open access to your computer to download spyware. These emails are fraudulent! Dover Federal will NEVER send you an email REQUESTING confidential account or personal information.
Service Deactivation Threat
Fraudulent emails often circulate claiming some account services will be deactivated or deleted. It asks you to sign in to a fraudulent Web site to renew these services in an attempt to steal your personal information.
Virus Alert—Install Software Update
Another fraudulent email claims "our" firewall has determined that emails containing worm copies are being sent from your computer. It asks that you install updates for worm elimination and "your computer restoring." A file is attached and may be named something like "Update-KB1218-w86exe". This email or any like it are NOT from Dover Federal. This is a scam. Any action taken as a result of such an email could compromise your computer. Dover Federal will NEVER send you an email requesting the download of software.
"Account Manager" Scam
Offers to for you to become an "Account Manager" or "Transfer Agent" for a third party, usually someone in an ex-Soviet bloc country, are another web-scam that starts as an email.
Scammers try to solicit you through an email or an advertisement on the Web, offering to let you "work from home" and be an Account Manager or "Money Transfer Agent" for them, thus letting you "earn" commissions (usually 5%) for your trouble. They then transfer money OUT of an unsuspecting person's account and into yours. Once the money is in your account, they ask you to send it to them via Western Union.
Counterfeit Cashier's Check Scam
In response to a listing on an Internet auction or other site, a buyer (often from a foreign country) purchases the item and sends you a cashier’s check for a lot more than the agreed-upon selling price. The buyer then asks you to wire the excess funds back. Within a week, the credit union is notified that the check is a worthless counterfeit and you are out thousands of dollars. In these scams, the cashier’s checks are excellent counterfeits and very difficult to spot.
In another twist to this scam, the buyer requests your credit union account and routing numbers so that he or she may wire funds to your account. Do NOT give your account numbers to anyone.
Million Dollar Sweepstakes or Windfall Scam
In another widespread scheme, you may receives an unsolicited letter, email or fax from an “official” in a foreign government offering to share a multimillion dollar windfall in “over-invoiced contract funds.” It sounds too good to be true—and it is.
The “official” claims to need your credit union account number and other personal information to transfer the money out of his country. And he will also “need” up-front cash from you to bribe other officials. You could lose the entire contents of your checking account. Beware! Remember...if an offer sounds too good to be true—it probably is!
Visa®/MasterCard® Security Code Scam
In this scam, the caller claims to work for the fraud department at Visa or MasterCard and tells you his badge number. He then asks if you recently purchased an anti-telemarketing device for $500. When you say "no," he tells you that his fraud department has been watching that company. He offers to block the charge. Because he has secured your name, credit card number and expiration date from a charge receipt, he is convincing when he provides you with this information to verify.
What he does not know—and wants you to divulge—is the three-digit security code on the back of your card. Without it, he cannot use your credit card number to shop on many sites on the Internet. Don't give out your code. Hang up.
To begin with, credit card companies—such as Visa and MasterCard—are not the credit card issuer. Financial institutions—such as banks and credit unions—issue credit cards. And credit card companies DO NOT call cardholders asking to disclose any information about their cards.
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TEXT MESSAGE TO YOUR CELL COULD BE A SCAM!
A new scam is surfacing that involves an unsolicited text message to your cell phone. The message urges you to call the number provided for information about account discrepancies and then solicits you for individual account information and PIN numbers.
Cell phone users should be wary of unsolicited text messages. Such messages should be deleted and all deleted messages should be removed, if possible, as the perpetrators have been known to use "Spyware" in conjunction with the text message solicitation.
"Spyware" is software installed on your computer or cell phone without your consent and it monitors or controls your use of the device. It may be used in your cell phone for such things as monitoring your Internet surfing, activating your speaker phone as a listening device, taking pictures with your phone camera, copying your contacts, or recording your keystrokes, which, in turn, could lead to identity theft.
Such a a scam could be used to obtain personally identifiable information and credit union access information, for those accessing their accounts using their cell phones.
Remember Dover Federal will NEVER send you a text message asking for account information. If you receive such a text message- DO NOT OPEN IT!
(Thanks To
David M. Marquis, Director of Examination & Insurance for providing this information)
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