Protect Yourself from Fraud and Social Engineering

Online banking has made day to day financial tasks convenient and quick! However, with those benefits also come with some risks.  As quickly as digital products are introduced, fraudsters are nearly just as quick to figure out ways to take advantage of their users. The financial industry has recently seen an uptick in fraud and social engineering.

In this type of fraud, bad actors will send text messages and emails to your users pretending to be from your institution’s fraud department. The text or email will provide a phone number for the recipient to call to resolve an attempted fraud on their account. When users call this number, the bad actors will request login credentials to their online banking profile. If access is given, the bad actors are then able to transfer funds out of your users’ accounts through various products.

How can you protect yourself?

• Never share your credentials or provide one-time passcodes to anyone who is not an authorized user on your account.
• Only contact WESTconsin Credit Union via the phone numbers listed on our website.
• Never click on links in unsolicited emails or texts.
• If you receive a call for mobile one-time passcode authorization that you did not request, do not respond to the text, or call to validate the login.
• Never trust caller ID, as caller ID information can be modified.

As fraud and scams trend across the digital banking industry, our goal is to keep you up to date and make recommendations to you to help protect our members against bad actors. If you fear you may be the victim of fraud, please contact WESTconsin Credit Union directly at (800) 924-0022.

The National Credit Union Administration's Fraud Prevention Center is a free resource that helps you learn how to recognize common scams, take action if you think you are a victim of fraud, and what you can do to protect your finances from fraud. The Fraud Prevention Center also provides fraud alerts.