ALAMOGORDO, N.M.—Otero FCU is warning members and non-members about a text message scam that directs customers to a bogus website.
According to the $289-million CU, members and non-members began receiving text messages Monday morning.
OFCU Vice-president of Marketing Darro Pannell said OFCU received numerous calls from credit union members and non-members about the text messages.
“Enough calls that it’s apparent a quite significant number of people received text messages,” Pannell told the Alamogordo Daily News. “There were members and non-members who received them and from different telephone providers too.”
OFCU members and non-members received a few different formats of the text message, but all text message styles took them to a website page that appears to be OFCU’s login page, the CU stated.
The page had a username and password prompt, so the fraudsters could capture OFCU members and non-members information if they entered it.
According to the CU, the text messages appeared to be coming from a few different sources with misspellings from oteromobile@verizon.com, Otero-deralCrediuniont@verison.com and oterofederalunion@verizon.com. OFCU said it does not use any of the addresses in any of their communications.
OFCU officials stated that for the most part people are well educated on email and telephone scams, but that this is the first time the CU has seen fraud attempts being initiated through text messages.
OFCU officials advised members to never enter their account information on a page that comes from an unsolicited text or email message.
“I think it’s a concern for the community as a whole regardless of where they bank,” Pannell told the newspaper. “It’s just another form of scams. I think we have a responsibility to inform the communities we serve about anything that may compromise their banking. We just wanted to get the word out about it.”