Hundreds of people in the Tri-State have gotten calls from their "alleged" banks claiming there is a problem with your account, and saying they need your information to unlock it.
It turns out it's actually a phishing scam.
"There's no area code, there's no continuation of a number it's just three numbers 206," says Debbie Anderson who got the call Wednesday.
She thought the three number call was suspicious and didn't give out any information.
However, her husband was out of state and had just bought lunch. He'd had problems making out-of-state purchases before, and thought this was the same thing.
"He pressed "one" to reactivate his card, and when he pressed "one" they asked for his card number, and he gave it to them thinking that it was gonna reactivate his card," says Debbie.
"It's lead us to believe it's a phishing scheme where people are randomly calling in our community," says Steve Bugg, Chief Marketing and Member Service Officer at Heritage Federal Credit Union.
Just yesterday Heritage Federal Credit Union received about 200 calls from customers.
Steve Bugg says if you've been targeted, let the credit union know.
"If you give us that number, we can report it to the authorities. We've also reported those numbers to the phone company so they could shut down that phone number as well," he says.
More importantly, don't give any one your information. Bugg says the bank has it, and would never ask you for your information over the phone, or by email or text.
If you have accidentally given it out, shut down your card immediately.
"So the fraudsters would not be able to transact business on that card," says Bugg.
Bugg says that while a majority the calls are to Heritage Federal Credit Union customers, many other gotten many from people who are customers at other banks.
He says H.F.C.U. customers are never liable for fraudulent purchases.
Copyright 2012 WFIE. All rights reserved.
