| | Samples of Scam E-Mails
Your first defense against these common criminals is being aware of the fraudulent activity that is taking place. Although financial institutions are a prime target of these scam e-mails, many other well-known companies are constantly targeted as well.
For example, when you receive an e-mail that seems to be from a company such as eBay, Yahoo, or PayPal and the message is asking you to confirm, verify, or update your account information, it is most likley a scam.
The logos may look real, but these e-mails are not from these companies. Do not respond in any way to these e-mails.
If you feel that the message may be legitimate, enter the company's known web address in your browser and contact them through their established site. Do not click on a link or call a telephone number that is provided in the e-mail!
Samples of the e-mails that have been circulating across the Internet that appear to be from Tyndall Federal are shown below. They may be downloaded in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format.
Remember, they are NOT from Tyndall Federal Credit Union, and the web sites that they link to are not associated in any way with your credit union. Do not respond to these messages!
This will be an on-going battle - as soon as we shut one bogus site down, these scam artists quickly begin another one. We will continue to provide samples of these e-mails if we become aware of new versions, but to date, the only ones we are aware of resemble the ones shown above.
If you should receive any unexpected e-mail message that seems to be from TFCU and are unsure about it, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Please forward the suspicious e-mail to us at alerttfcu@tyndall.org. It is best to provide us with the actual e-mail, if possible, so we can determine the steps necessary to shut down the fraudulent site.
Other Scams: E-Mails, Phone Calls & Letters Requesting your Financial Information
From time to time, we are alerted to fraudulent e-mails, phone calls, and letters that are supposedly from well-known companies such as e-Bay, PayPal, etc. We are also informed of scams that use the names of well-known organizations - inside and outside of the financial industry (NCUA, CUNA, FBI, Better Business Bureau, etc). In order to help keep you informed, we have provided information below, including samples of these scam e-mails.
Guard your account information as you guard your wallet. Do not provide your account, check/debit card, credit card, or other financial information to anyone through a link in an e-mail or in response to an unexpected letter or phone call. If you think the contact may be legitimate, go directly to the known web address from your web browser and contact the company through information found on that site.
2/04/08
According to a recent FBI Press Release, criminals have been sending e-mail messages to people to inform them that someone has filed a complaint against them or their company with the Department of Justice, the Internal Revenue Service, the Social Security Administration, or the Better Business Bureau.
These e-mails are designed to make people think that they must respond immediately by clicking on a link in the e-mail or by calling the phone number provided. If people click on the link or call the phone number provided, they are asked to provide personal information that can then be used by the criminals to steal the identity of the respondents.
For more information on this and other e-mail scams, please click here to visit the FBI's web site.
Sample Fraudulent E-Mails:
- NCUA - September 27, 2007 scam e-mail
- NCUA - March 23, 2007 scam e-mail
- Regions Bank - January 23, 2007 scam e-mail
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