Identity Theft is when someone uses your name, social or other identifying information without your permission.
With a scam, the individuals are attempting to gain your personal information from you to later commit identity theft. There are many different ways in which they attempt this:
How Do ID Thieves get your information or scam you:
- Spamming: Spammers send unsolicited emails to huge mailing lists, and these may contain viruses or hackers, and ever advertisements.
- Spoofers and phishers create a replica of an existing webpage to fool us into submitting personal, financial or password data. With phishing you receive an email that appears to originate from Call FCU. It may appear urgent and ask for your immediate attention by clicking on a link within the email.
- Pharming is where you are redirected to an illegitimate website instead of the website you want.
- Vishing is short for voice phishing. In this scam consumers receive a phone call or email directing them to call a phone number and they are directed to verify sensitive information.
- Old fashioned dumpster diving for your personal information is still in use, and Thieves also continue to steal mail from your mailbox.
New Scams crop up daily. They use social engineering techniques on everyone to attempt to con us into opening messages and entering our information. Call Federal will not send you emails saying we need you to update your information to keep your account or debit / credit cards from being blocked. Never reply to an email from a link sent to you by email. If you receive an email, and you think it may be legitimate and want to ensure services are not stopped, call us or email us from the phone number you usually use.