March 22, 2005
An e-mail has been circulating around UVA that appears to be from the Virginia Credit Union and asks for customers to type in their personal information into a cited URL address.
It's one of a number of scams targeting bank customers, most recently those of SunTrust and Wachovia banks.
The e-mail was sent by someone who got their hands on a lengthy list of e-mail addresses. It appears to be official, but it is not. One obvious reason why, said Marketing Vice President of UVA Community Credit Union, Janine Williams, is that a financial institution would never send an e-mail like this.
"Bottom line is, don't send out your information whether it's by e-mail or over the phone. An institution would never ask for that, because they already have it," advised Williams.
The only time you would be asked personal information is to prove your identity and that's if you are initiating the call. But if you do receive an e-mail like this, Williams said, there's no need to read between the lines to know it's a fake.
"As times are changing we need to take a step back and not always react to what's in front of us. Like with these e-mails they looked very official but there were certain things in the e-mail that would have given them away, like a lot of typos and poor grammar," she observed.
If you receive an e-mail or phone call like this, Williams urges you to contact your financial institution immediately.
No one, thus far, has fallen victim to this most recent scam.
