American Airlines Federal Credit Union continues to see a type of fraud known as “spoofing.”

It involves phone calls and text messages that appear to be from your financial institution with the purpose of tricking you into providing personal information, such as complete credit/debit card numbers, card PINs and security codes, online access codes, passwords and Social Security numbers.

The Credit Union does have systems that help detect unauthorized activity on credit and debit cards and those systems do make phone calls and send texts. However, they will not ask for any of the information listed above.

We’ve received reports of potential scams from Credit Union members associated with our 800 number which, if saved in your phone, may only come up in your caller ID as “Credit Union.” The Credit Union does not call members from our 800 number as it is only for inbound calls from our members. When someone from the Credit Union calls, it will be from an 817 area code and we will leave a message if we get a voicemail.

It’s important to remember that if you suspect the identity of the caller or text for any reason, a good rule of thumb is to hang up and call us directly at (800) 533-0035. Don’t use the call-back number on the phone because that may go back to the fraudster.

Members have experienced personal email accounts being hacked/compromised with the fraudster gaining access to their online banking. A fraudster can hack your personal email and view the emails you send and receive. If you receive the online banking access code through your email address, the fraudster can see it, take over your online banking or re-route Credit Union emails to a different email address. You’d then never see any additional alert emails. Once they get into your online banking they would be able to transact on your account.

Protect yourself and remember these helpful hints

1.    We won't ask for personal information.

We won’t call and ask you for any of the following pieces of information over the phone or by text: Complete credit/debit card numbers; card PINs, CVV numbers and security codes; online access codes and passwords; or Social Security numbers  

2.    Check the text message five-digit short code.    

Fraud text messages for suspicious credit and debit card activity will only be sent from a five-digit short code – 23618 for debit cards and 72488 for credit cards.

3.    We'll never ask for your secure access code.

We don’t authenticate by sending a secure-access code and asking you to read that back to us.

4.    Remove your email address as a target for the six-digit secure access code in online banking.

Since emails are easily compromised, we recommend having the secure access code go to your personal cellphone number ONLY.

5.    Always authenticate fraud claims independently.

Log in yourself and verify that a charge is actually showing on your account, or not, or that your access has been cut off or not. You may always hang up and call (800) 533-0035 to verify if something is happening on your account.