Attorney General Todd Rokita helps Hoosiers protect themselves during Identity Theft Awareness Week

January 2024

January 29 kicked off Identity Theft Awareness Week, and Attorney General Todd Rokita is encouraging all Hoosiers to beware of cyber criminals and how to protect their personal information.

According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, there were more than 353 million victims of ID theft in 2023.

The Office of the Attorney General suggests all Hoosiers read the following to avoid, detect, and respond to this crime:

Tips to protect you and your family:

Do not conduct any sensitive transactions, including purchases, on a public Wi-Fi network.
Create a unique password for each online account and change often.
Don’t click on anything in unsolicited emails or text messages.
Be careful with the information you and your family share on social media. Sharing things like pet names, schools, and family members can give scammers the hints they need to guess your passwords or the answers to your account security questions.
Place a security freeze on your credit reports to block an identity thief from opening a new account or obtaining credit in your name and keep new creditors from accessing your credit report without your permission.

Common clues someone has stolen your identity:

Bank account transactions you can’t explain.
Unfamiliar accounts or charges on your credit report.
Medical bills for services you didn’t use.
A health plan won’t cover you because your medical records show a condition you don’t have.
The IRS notifies you that more than one tax return was filed in your name, or that you have income from an employer you don’t work for.

What to do right away if your identity is stolen:

Call the companies where you know the fraud occurred.
Place a security freeze and request a free credit report with all three credit unions, Experian, Transunion, and Equifax.

Any Indiana resident can request a credit freeze free of charge. There is no fee for Indiana residents to place, temporarily lift, remove or request a new password or PIN.

Contact Attorney General Rokita’s office if you believe you are a victim of identity theft by visiting gov/attorneygeneral or call us at 1-800-382-5516.

For additional tips, you may also visit identitytheft.gov, a site maintained by the Federal Trade Commission.

Previous Security Alerts

IRS Warns Taxpayers from Filing Fake Returns - February 2023

The IRS issued a consumer alert to warn taxpayers of new scams that urge people to use wage information on a tax return to claim false credits in hopes of getting a big refund. According to the agency, the scheme encourages people to use tax software to manually fill out Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement, and include false income information to get substantial refunds based on the large amount of withholding. This information would be very useful to communicate to your members.

Two variations of this scheme are also being seen by the IRS and both involve misusing Form W-2 wage information in hopes of generating a larger refund: The following describes the said variations:

One variation involves people using Form 7202, Credits for Sick Leave and Family Leave for Certain Self-Employed Individuals, to claim a credit based on income earned as an employee and not as a self-employed individual. These credits were available for self-employed individuals for 2020 and 2021 during the pandemic; they are not available for 2022 tax returns.
The second variation involves people making up fictional employees employed in their household and using Schedule H (Form 1040), Household Employment Taxes, to try claiming a refund based on false sick and family wages they never paid. The form is designed to report household employment taxes if a taxpayer hired someone to do household work and those wages were subject to Social Security, Medicare or FUTA taxes, or if the employer withheld federal income tax from those wages.

NEW EMAIL PHISHING SCAM

Researchers at Malwarebytes report a new email phishing campaign warning users that someone has logged into their account from an IP address in Moscow. The email then contains a button to report the issue which opens a pre-filled message to be sent to a specific email account. If users send the email, the attackers then try and rope the users into the scam.

As a reminder, ISU Credit Union will never solicit personal/private information through e-mail, phone calls or text messages. If you question a received message that appears to be from ISU Credit Union, please do not respond and contact us directly.

HOLIDAY SEASON FRAUD PREVENTION

During the holiday season, you may be more susceptible to various forms of fraud. The most common form of fraud found in the financial industry is a result of social engineering: this is when a fraudster impersonates your financial institution to trick you into sharing your account credentials, which are then later used for account takeover.

ISU Credit Union wants to help you help yourself. Here are some helpful guidelines to follow to help keep your accounts safe:

Only call ISU Credit Union via the phone numbers available on our website.
Do not provide your online account access login credentials, one-time password, account number or personal information by email, text or phone call.
Never give out information to callers requesting information you received via text. ISU Credit Union will never request this information or pressure you to reset your online account access login password. End the conversation with the scammer without supplying any personal information.
Never click on links in unsolicited emails or texts. Phishing is when scammers send emails or text messages that appear to be from a reputable company and are not.
Do not respond to texts, calls or emails for one-time passcode authorizations that you did not request or validate the login.
Never trust caller ID as caller ID may be modified.
Do not give information over the phone if you receive a call stating that a transaction is canceled, even if the caller claims to be from your financial institution. Once again, you should contact your financial institution using a published phone number to inquire about the transaction.
Never give an unsolicited caller remote access to your computer.

Digital-Age Scams

We are seeing a rise in digital scams at an alarming rate! Not sure what a digital scam looks like? Here's an article from Yahoo! Finance that highlights some of the more common ones we are seeing here at the credit union. Please help check-in on those in your social circles (family, friends, co-workers) who may not be aware of these type of scams.

We highly encourage you to do your own research when someone has contacted you for payment or any other money-related issues. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. We also encourage you to end the conversation with the caller, and look up contact information for the company/person they claim to be and contact that company/person directly.

Money Mule Scam

Don't fall victim to a money mule scam! Learn more about this type of scam and how you can avoid becoming a victim through this FTC article: https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2020/03/whats-money-mule-scam

ATM Skimming Device Alert

ISU Credit Union has been informed that a deeply-inserted skimming device was retrieved from the automated teller machine (ATM) located at our branch on north 3^rd Street. Once this was brought to our attention we began our own internal investigation and we have narrowed down the compromised time period to include the dates of September 6-14, 2018. All ISUFCU members who were effected have been notified.

Be assured that we are working diligently with the authorities to catch the perpetrators of this crime. We have implemented additional ATM security measures to further protect your card usage.

Tax Scam Alert

It is that time of year when scammers try to cash in on the vulnerability of others. Please visit the IRS website to read about different versions of tax scams that are occurring now. The IRS also has a guide available to help you avoid tax-related identity theft.

If you notice an erroneous deposit or withdrawal from your account, please contact us immediately. We encourage you routinely monitor your account through our CUOnline Account Access via your desktop, tablet or mobile device. You can also call our Touch Tone Teller at 812-234-1004 for updated account information. If you would like set up for any of these services, contact the credit union.

IRS Website Avoid Tax-Related Identity Theft Guide