The IRS cautioned taxpayers to be on the lookout for scams involving proposed advance payment checks. Although the government has not yet enacted an economic stimulus package in which the IRS would provide advance payments, known informally as rebates to many Americans, a scam which uses the proposed rebates as bait has already cropped up.

The goal of the scams is to trick people into revealing personal and financial information, such as Social Security, bank account or credit card numbers, which the scammers can use to commit identity theft.

Typically, identity thieves use a victim’s personal and financial data to empty the victim’s financial accounts, run up charges on the victim’s existing credit cards, apply for new loans, credit cards, services or benefits in the victim’s name, file fraudulent tax returns or even commit crimes. Most of these fraudulent activities can be committed electronically from a remote location, including overseas. Committing these activities in cyberspace allows scamsters to act quickly and cover their tracks before the victim becomes aware of the theft.

People whose identities have been stolen can spend months or years — and their hard-earned money — cleaning up the mess thieves have made of their reputations and credit records. In the meantime, victims may lose job opportunities, may be refused loans, education, housing or cars, or even get arrested for crimes they didn't commit.

 For more information, visit http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=178061,00.html.

Anyone wishing to access the IRS Web site should initiate contact by typing the IRS.gov address into their Internet address window, rather than clicking on a link in an e-mail or opening an attachment.

Those who have received a questionable e-mail claiming to come from the IRS may forward it to a mailbox the IRS has established to receive such e-mails, phishing@irs.gov, using instructions contained in an article titled “How to Protect Yourself from Suspicious E-Mails or Phishing Schemes.” Following the instructions will help the IRS track the suspicious e-mail to its origins and shut down the scam. Find the article by visiting IRS.gov and entering the words “suspicious e-mails” into the search box in the upper right corner of the front page.

Those who have received a questionable telephone call that claims to come from the IRS may also use the phishing@irs.gov mailbox to notify the IRS of the scam.  

Notice to All Members!

Valued Member,

To help the government fight the funding of terrorism and money laundering activities, Federal law requires all Credit Unions to obtain, verify, and record information that identifies each person who has an account, including investors in transactions for which we act as advisor.

What this means for you:

If you are a member of (insert Credit Union name) please provide your name, social security number, address, and date of birth, financial information and/or other information that will allow us to identify you. We may also ask to see your driver's license or other identifying documents.

Please follow the link below to continue: (Link has been removed for your protection)

We appreciate your cooperation with this. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Detecting a fraudulent e-mail can be difficult. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

Be suspicious of any e-mail with urgent requests for personal financial information.
Don't use the links in such an e-mail.
Phisher e-mails are typically NOT personalized.

Do not reply to the e-mail or click on any provided links. Delete the email from your inbox.

hello dear,

you have been nominated in our email and name balloting, in this year nominate your teacher of the year email balloting, which was advertised in (www.jumpy.it <http://www.jumpy.it/> ) web site engine banner, you where nominated by your old students and your email address  and your name  was  forwarded to our balloting agent, you email address will be forwarded  PROF, NADAL. for a good financial reward of USD.700,000. that is, seven hundred thousand UNITED STATE DOLLARS. on your enviable profession.

this philanthropic initiative is organised by PROF, SALAS NADAL. a man who was made  acquire education from a teacher after he lost his parent in a ghastly car crash when he was 6years old, and sadly he lost the teacher who gave him all in life,  when he made his first million US dollars, at the age of 26, since then this philanthropist have made it mandatory to give 10% of his yearly profit to teachers worldwide, via  email and name voting from old  students being a billionaire at age of 46, this organisation was initiated by PROF, NADAL  philanthropic effort since five years ago to date, please to avoid multiple claims from our winners kindly submit code number 3720/3209. to PROF, NADAL, Secretary to these email address, (notasha_444@yahoo.com)your Entire Inheritances fund has been credited in your favour through ATM card.You are therefore adviced to send your contact to MR, DAVID OFFOR,  of Summit UNIONInternational Bank Operations department,Summit International LONDON:EMAIL (davoffor@yahoo.co.uk) or mrs, MARY JOHNSON  on # +4470457707094.

for the collection of your original payment slip with your ATM card.

You will be issued with an ATM card that you can use to withdraw money in any ATM machine in any part of the world, but the maximum is Ten thousand US$10,000,00 dollars per a day.

You are therefore directed to contact MR,DAVID as directed with the following details:

1. PHONE AND FAX NUMBER,

2.YOUR FULL NAME

3. THE ADDRESS WERE YOU WANT THE ATM CARD TO BE DELIVERED.(P.O BOX NOT ACCEPTABLE) YOUR FULL RECEIVING ADDRESS.

4. YOUR AGE AND CURRENT OCCUPATION

5. CONFIRM IN ALTERNATIVE IF YOU DO HAVE A REVOLVING HOME EQUITY LINE OF CREDIT ACCOUNT FOR A POSIBLE CREDITING.

Finally you are expected to acknowledge the receipt of this mail to enable this office monitor this payment effectively.

DR, AHMED I AYUBA.         

Brampton street South west LONDON     
Remember all whiners must be claimed not latter than 25Th JAN, 2008, please note, in other to avoid unnecessary delay send complications remember to quote your reference number, and code number in all correspondence. furthermore should there be any change of address do inform our agent as soon as possible.

Best regards,

DR, AHMED AYUBA.

The Bellingham Herald recently ran a short story on an alert from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  A new e-mail scam is taking place, one that logs passwords and bank information. 

According to the Herald, 'the e-mails are intended to appear as legitimate complaints about the recipient’s company or department, according to the press release.' 

The scam involves an attachment containing a virus which logs the recipients personal information and passwords.

As always, be wary about opening email from addresses you do not recognize. Do not click on links provided in emails from unknown senders and do not give out your personal information over the phone or email. 

If you have received a scam e-mail, the FBI asks that you notify the Internet crime complaint center at www.ic3.gov.

If you recently received a letter from Certegy Check Services, Inc. stating that some of your personal information was included in a recent compromise, please be assured that this was not remotely connected to WECU or how WECU chooses to do business.  Certegy Check Services, Inc. provides check authorization services for various merchants, as well as credit/debit card authorization for casinos.

Please call our full-service call center if you have received one of these letters.
 
Call Center Hours
Monday - Friday, 8:00am - 6:00pm
 
Local
360.676.1168
 Toll-free
800.525.8703
 Fax
360.756.7800

CUNA, (NOT CUNA Mutual Group), is being used as the subject of a phishing message targeting credit union members to collect personal account information, plastic card numbers, and passwords. CUNA is warning people who receive the e-mail not to click on the link to the fake web page, just delete the message.

This new phishing-scam attempt using the Credit Union National Association's name, informs recipients about "irregular check card activity" and advises them to call a toll-free number to get any restrictions removed. The call is a ploy to get personal account information, possibly for identity theft purposes.

As a trade association for U.S. credit unions, CUNA does not maintain any type of customer/member financial information. 

Recipients received a message as a:

"CUNA Alert: Irregular Check Card Activity"

"We detected irregular activity on check card on Oct. 25/2007. For your protection, you must reactivate your card. Call us immediately at 1.866.840.2863. We will review the activity on your account with you and upon verification, we will remove any restrictions placed on your account.

Please disregard this notice if you have already accessed the website or spoken with one of our representatives."

Dear User (Client)

Due to incorrect password entry, several attempts of access to our clients' accounts have been detected and blocked by our security department within the latest day. At the moment, access to your account is partially blocked by the system. It means that you may browse accessible information, change settings but you can not make any transactions.

In order to remove restrictions, you have to enter your login and password received at the moment of your account registration in our banking system as soon as possible. Just follow the link and enter necessary information.

Should 3 of your attempts be invalid due to incorrect login/password entry, your account will be completely blocked. We hope for understanding and make our apologies for inconveniences

IT-Security department

Do not follow any links found in this e-mail!

Delete it from your inbox.