Other LanguagesWashington State Employees Credit Union (WSECU) members and nonmembers continue to be the target of a text message and phone call scam.
Please read WSECU’s alert for more information:
WSECU fraudulent texts and phone calls - be on alert!
The fraudsters are at it again. Members and non-members have reported receiving texts that appeared to come from Washington State Employees Credit Union (WSECU) stating their card had been deactivated or suspended. If you received this text, DO NOT respond.
Multiple text messages went out with different response phone numbers. As we learn of each number, we are working with our partners to shut these fraudulent phone numbers down.
If you received this text and responded to it, please call our Contact Center at 800.562.0999 for assistance; Monday - Friday 7:00 am-7:00 pm and Saturday 9:00 am-2:00 pm. After hours, call 866.861.5416 immediately to speak to a representative and have your card blocked.
Texts of this nature are referred to as “smishing” and are an attempt to obtain your card information to commit fraud. If you are wondering how they matched your phone number to your WSECU account the good news is they didn't. They use a "shotgun" approach when sending texts and hope for a match. This is why both members and non-members receive the texts. As soon as we learn of these attempts we also use social media to get the word out. Look for updates on both Facebook and Twitter.
On Friday, April 18, we also learned about a vishing attempt where members are receiving automated phone calls stating their debit cards have been put on hold, deactivated or suspended and instructions to follow to reactivate it. This is very likely another attempt at fraud; however, it mirrors the process used by Falcon, our fraud prevention service. If you receive such a call, you can verify it is Falcon by the phone number, which is 866.221.5006. If the number displayed or the number given to call back is not this number, do not respond. To learn more about how Falcon works, click here.
We have great education resources here on our website (type “fraud” in the search field or visit our Community & Education section) and we’re also using e-mail to share the same information with you. While we do contact members via text on occasion, we will never send you a text asking you to call and provide confidential information that we already have on file. Fraud attempts like these tend to happen after hours or on the weekend when we’re closed. So keep your guard up and never provide personal or card information in response to an unsolicited request.
Read more information about fraudulent texts ("smishing") here.
Read more about fraudulent phone calls ("vishing") here.
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