No accounts compromised in phone scam
JANESVILLE
No account holders at Parker Community Credit Union have been compromised in an apparent telephone scam that started Monday afternoon, said Ron Hornsey, executive vice president.
A number of people in the area received calls starting about 4:30 p.m. Monday from an automated message saying the person’s debit card with Parker Community Credit Union was being deactivated. Callers were asked to punch in account information. The number showed up as all zeros on caller IDs.
Many of the calls went to people who had no affiliation with the credit union, Hornsey said. Credit union officials also noticed the calls were made to cell phone and landline numbers starting with “608-751.”
No credit union accounts have been compromised by the scam, Hornsey said.
“It’s (scams) happened before. It’ll probably happen again,” he said. “People should just ignore that kind of call.”
Mar 17, 2009 at 7:24 p.m.
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I have gotten 2 calls exactly as described in the news article and I don't even live in Janesville. Although my cell # does start with 751..I checked with my credit union today and they said it was a scam..
Mar 17, 2009 at 5:13 p.m.
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And no mention of the same calls for Bank of Brodhead customers??? I was woken up at 5:50 with my 2nd automated fraud call this morning!!!
Mar 17, 2009 at 4:05 p.m.
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life_is_short, a lot of people that fall for this crap is the elderly, unfortunately. I'm glad that no one has been a victim of this scam yet. But, should we really be surprised that this continues in this poor global economy? People are doing what they think they have to to continue living their life. Even if it is fraudulent.
Mar 17, 2009 at 2:53 p.m.
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I lost my lunch money. Looks like I'm brown bagging it this week.
Mar 17, 2009 at 1:42 p.m.
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I have gotten 2 of them today saying it was Blackhawk Credit Union.
Mar 17, 2009 at 1:38 p.m.
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Wow, they called me yesterday afternoon. We figured it was a scam though. I didn't even finish listening to the automated message.
Mar 17, 2009 at 1:37 p.m.
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Yesterday I received the call and the recorded message stated "Parker Community Credit Union....blah blah blah" Today I received the call again, but no banking institution was mentioned, just a recorded message stating "we regret to inform you that we had to lock your debit card..." I can't believe people actually fall for this crap!
Mar 17, 2009 at 12:17 p.m.
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Yeah, it's frighteningly easy to set this up using a VOIP internet phone and some cheap PBX software. The money is usually transferred immediately to (say) Russia and disappears.
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It sounds like consumers are getting smarter, which is good.
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