Every month, Coast Central Credit Union’s fraud prevention team helps stop scams before members lose their hard-earned money. While these efforts save members tens of thousands of dollars each month, scammers constantly develop new tactics designed to create fear, urgency, and confusion. Understanding how these scams work is one of the best ways to protect yourself. Here are three common fraud schemes we’ve recently encountered and the warning signs to watch for.
Impersonation Scams: When Criminals Pretend to Be Government Officials
In a recent example, scammers posed as federal agents who called members and asked for their savings. Using lines like “This is the FBI, your money is at risk,” the scammers convinced the victim to withdraw cash and purchase gold and hand the gold to a courier.
Here’s the truth: no real agency will ever ask you to hand your savings to a courier. Not for an investigation. Not for verification. Not ever. If a call feels off, hang up and reach us at the number on your card or statement.
In this case, the scam began with an unsolicited message from social media, email, text messages or other digital channels. These messages include links, attachments, or QR codes designed to make the recipient act quickly. While the message itself doesn’t lead to financial loss, it can be the first step in a phishing attempt, identity theft, account takeover, or device compromise.
Whether a caller claims to represent the FBI, IRS, Social Security Administration, or another government agency, legitimate organizations will never instruct you to withdraw your savings, purchase gold, gift cards, cryptocurrency, or transfer funds to “protect” your money.
Text Message Scams (Smishing): Watch Out for Urgent Requests
Scammers are also increasingly reaching out via text message in a scam called smishing. Smishing is a form of phishing that uses text messages instead of email. The goal is to trick recipients into clicking malicious links or providing sensitive information.
These messages are getting harder to spot, but some warning signs to look out for are a false sense or urgency and links that look suspicious. If you suspect something is off, always use the Coast Central app or go directly to our website. Never click a suspicious link. On a desktop computer, you can sometimes inspect a link by hovering over it to see its destination, but if you’re unsure whether a message is legitimate, it’s safest to ignore the link and contact Coast Central directly. The scammers behind these text messages often ask for personal details, like PIN, password or account numbers. Coast Central will NEVER ask for these kinds of personally identifiable information.
If something feels off, whether it’s a suspicious email, a scammy text, or a pop-up on your computer, don’t click. Call us directly and we’ll sort it out with you.
Impersonating Coast Central Employees
One of the hardest-to-spot scams comes from fraudsters who use real Coast Central employee names and departments to scam members out of their personal identity and money. Like the two scams described above, these scammers also use fear and urgency to trick their victims. If you get one of these calls, hang up immediately and call us directly and speak to a Coast Central representative.
Coast Central will never ask for:
- Online banking usernames and passwords
- One-time verification codes
- Full debit or Visa card numbers
- Your PIN
Fraudsters are constantly changing their tactics, but their goal remains the same: creating fear, urgency, or trust to convince victims to act before thinking. If something seems unusual, pause, verify, and contact Coast Central directly using a trusted phone number or website. A few minutes of caution can prevent a costly mistake.
Coast Central’s fraud prevention team works every day to help protect our members, but your best defense is staying informed about the latest scams and knowing the warning signs.