Warning of automated bank calls from Thurston Co Sheriff's Department

Chelsea Mitchell Security Resources

From the Thurston County Sheriff’s Department:

Bank cardholders are being contacted by cell phone using various spoofed numbers, and are pre recorded messages stating that they are calling from your bank.

As of now, they have used Evergreen Direct Credit Union and Our Community Credit Union.  The message states that “their debit card has been deactivated due to a billing error”.  It then prompts the cardholders to enter their 16 digit debit card number and pin. After this information is entered it tells the cardholder that their account is now “activated”.

As a result, the cardholder’s account is accessed through ATM activity based in Spain.  Banks do not call you on your cell phone numbers or your home number and ask for your account information.  Even if you see a local phone number on the caller Id, it could be from any where in the world. Local numbers can be spoofed and some local numbers are being sold by phone companies to other persons around the world.  There are web sites that also allow callers to show any number on a caller Id that they want.

For more information on scam prevention, visit the US Federal Trade Commission website.