Important Fraud Alert - Cell Phone Phishing scam

Recently, Paragon has received reports of a phisher sending messages to cell phones. The message is as follows:

payments@paragonfcu.org
subject: Paragon FCU
message: Dear Paragon FCU member

Your online services are expired and need to be renewed. Please visit us on line @ www.onlineparagonfcu.org <http://www.onlineparagonfcu.org>

ALWAYS REMEMBER: Paragon Federal Credit Union does not ask for account and personal financial information via e-mails or unsolicited phone calls. If you receive any such messages, do NOT click the links or call the numbers provided. Instead, immediately delete the message from your computer.

For more information on avaoiding Phishing Scams, visit the following goverment website:
FTC Consumer Alert - HOw not to get hooked by Phising Scams - http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt127.shtm

Important Fraud Alert - IRS warns of rebate scams

The Internal Revenue Service has issued an alert, warning that the IRS name and logo is being used by fraudsters attempting to access the taxpayer financial information through e-mail, telephone, and cell phone text messaging.

Note: The IRS does not ask for personal identifying or financial information via unsolicited e-mail, telephone calls, or text messaging.

The following scams are being used to trick taxpayers into divulging financial account  information for fraudulent purposes:

• Taxpayers receive a phone calls telling them that they are eligible for a  sizable rebate for filing their taxes early, and they are told to provide  their financial account information for direct deposit.  
• Taxpayers receive e-mails that claim they are eligible for a tax refund of  a specific amount, and they are instructed to click on the link in the  e-mail to access the refund claim form, which requires them to disclose  financial account information.  
• E-mail notifications addressed to individual taxpayers claim that their  tax returns will be audited. The individual is instructed to click  on the link within the e-mail and complete forms disclosing personal and  financial account information.  
• Businesses, accountants, and “Treasury” managers are receiving bogus  e-mails regarding tax law changes. To obtain information on publications for  businesses, estates taxes, excise taxes, exempt organizations, as well as  IRAs and other retirement plans, the recipient is instructed to click on a  series of links. The IRS suspects that clicking on these links downloads  “malware” onto the recipient’s computer, which can be used to search for  financial records and other private information.  
• A person claiming to be an IRS employee telephones taxpayers to say the  IRS has mailed them a check that has not been cashed. The caller then  asks for verification of financial account information.  
  

Important Information About Identity Theft

Identity theft occurs when someone uses your personal identifying information, such as your name, Social Security number, credit card number, etc. without your permission to commit fraud or other crimes.

Below you'll find important reminders and useful information:

• Do not give out financial information such as checking and credit card numbers or your Social Security number.
• Report lost or stolen checks immediately.
• Notify Paragon of suspicious phone inquiries such as those asking for account information to "verify a statement" or "award a prize".
• Closely guard your ATM Personal Identification Number and ATM receipts.
• Shred any financial solicitations and credit union statements before disposing of them.
• Put outgoing mail in a secure, official Postal Service collection box.
• If regular bills or statements fail to reach you, call the company to find out why.
• If your bills include questionable items, don't ignore them. Instead, investigate immediately to head off any possible fraud.
• Periodically contact the major credit reporting companies to review your file and make certain the information is correct.
  •  Credit Reporting Bureaus
    • Equifax (www.equifax.com)
      • Place a Fraud Alert: (888) 766-0008
      • Order a credit report: (800) 685-1111
    • Experian (www.experian.com)
      • Place a Fraud Alert: (888) 397-3742
      • Order a credit report: (888) 397-3742
    • TransUnion (www.transunion.com)
      • Place a Fraud Alert: (800) 680-7289
      • Order a credit report: (800) 888-4213
• To obtain a Free Annual Credit Report from all three credit reporting agencies visit or call:
  • www.annualcreditreport.com
  • (877) 322-8228

_____________________________________________

Again, please remember that we will never email or call you to verify or obtain sensitive information. Please contact us at (800) 222-8877 or staff@paragonfcu.org to report suspicious activity or potential fraud.

Fraud Alert issued on 1-8-07

A member has notified us stating that they received a phone call from an individual impersonating a Paragon employee. This individual was calling in an attempt to acquire sensitive account information.

We will NEVER call or email you to verify or obtain ANY sensitive information. Please contact us at (800) 222-8877 or fraud@paragonfcu.org if you receive a phone call or email that appears fraudulent.

Fraud Alert issued on 12-5-06

If you receive the following fraudulent email that appears to be from Paragon Federal Credit Union that instructs you to go online to take part in a survey, do not respond to it.  Please remember that we will never email or call you to verify or obtain sensitive information. 

Members have received the following fraudulent emails:

Dear Paragon Federal Credit  Union Customer:

You have been chosen by the Paragon Federal Credit Union online department to take part in our quick and easy 5 question survey. In return we will credit 20$ to your account, just for your time.

With the information collected we can decide to direct a number of changes to improve and expand our online services. The information you provide us is all non-sensitive and anonymous. No part of it is handed down to any third party. It will be stored in our database for maximum 7 days while we process the results of this nationwide survey. We kindly ask you to spare two minutes of your time and take part in our survey.
To complete this survey and  get the 20$ reward Click here (link removed) Please do not reply to this message. This message has been sent to all our customers.

Thank you for being a valued Paragon Federal Credit Union Online customer.

This fraudulent email contained Paragon Federal’s name which have been used fraudulently in a “phishing” e-mail scam aimed at tricking people into providing sensitive financial and personal data on replicated Web sites. Giving these phishers your account and other sensitive information may expose you to identity theft and other types of fraud.

Again, please remember that we will never email or call you to verify or obtain sensitive information. Please contact us at (800) 222-8877 or staff@paragonfcu.org to report suspicious activity or potential fraud.

Fraud Alert issued on 11-27-06

If you receive the following fraudulent email that appears to be from Paragon Federal Credit Union that instructs you to go online to provide, verify or confirm financial or sensitive personal information, do not respond to it.  Please remember that we will never email or call you to verify or obtain sensitive information. 

Members have received the following fraudulent emails:

  Dear Paragon Federal Credit Union card holder,

As part of our security measures, we regulary check
the transactions made from ATMs worldwide. We recently
noticed the following issue on your account:

A recent review of your transaction history determined
that your card was used at an ATM located in Hungary,
but for security reasons the requested transaction was
refused.

ATM location: (limk removed)

In order keep you and your account secure we advice you
to complete the verification process:

Click here (link removed)

We thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.
Please understand that this is a security measure
intended to help protect you and your account.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

Sincerely, Paragon Federal Credit Union Review Department

Copyright 2006 Paragon Federal Credit Union. All rights reserved.

This fraudulent email contained Paragon Federal’s name which has been used fraudulently in a “phishing” e-mail scam aimed at tricking people into providing sensitive financial and personal data on replicated Web sites. Giving these phishers your account and other sensitive information may expose you to identity theft and other types of fraud.

Again, please remember that we will never email or call you to verify or obtain sensitive information. Please contact us at (800) 222-8877 or staff@paragonfcu.org to report suspicious activity or potential fraud.

Fraud Alert issued on 11-22-06

If you receive the following fraudulent email that appears to be from Paragon Federal Credit Union that instructs you to go online to provide, verify or confirm financial or sensitive personal information, do not respond to it.  Please remember that we will never email or call you to verify or obtain sensitive information. 

Members have received the following fraudulent emails:

Dear Client of Paragon Federal Credit Union

.
This is your official notification that your account
has been limited. We recently reviewed your
credit card and it seems that you are using the
same credit card for 2 accounts. As you can read
in our User Agreement ( section 2.13 ) opening
multiple accounts is stricly forbidden. You are
now requested to provide information relevant to
your account. Paragon Federal Credit Union will
investigate the matter promptly and if the
investigation is in your favor, we will restore
your account.

Please click here (link removed) and complete the steps to remove limitations.
Completing correctly all of the checklist items
will automatically restore your account access.

2006 Paragon Federal Credit Union
site design by: Paragon Services, Inc.

This fraudulent email contained Paragon Federal’s name and logo which have been used fraudulently in a “phishing” e-mail scam aimed at tricking people into providing sensitive financial and personal data on replicated Web sites. Giving these phishers your account and other sensitive information may expose you to identity theft and other types of fraud.

Again, please remember that we will never email or call you to verify or obtain sensitive information. Please contact us at (800) 222-8877 or staff@paragonfcu.org to report suspicious activity or potential fraud

Fraud Alert issued on 11-20-06

If you receive the following fraudulent email that appears to be from Paragon Federal Credit Union that instructs you to go online to provide, verify or confirm financial or sensitive personal information, do not respond to it.  Please remember that we will never email or call you to verify or obtain sensitive information. 

Members have received the following fraudulent emails:

Dear    Paragon Federal Credit Union Customer

      This is your official notification that your
      account has been Limited. We recently reviewed
your credit card and it                 seems that you are
using the same credit card for 2 accounts. As you
        can read in our                            User Agreement (
section             2.14 ) opening multiple           accounts
is strictly forbidden. You are now requested to
provide             information relevant to your
account.         Paragon Federal Credit        Union
will investigate the           matter promptly and if
the investigation is in your favor, we will
restore your account.

   Click here and complete the steps to
    remove limitations

         2006 Paragon         Federal Credit Union  

This fraudulent email contained Paragon Federal’s name which has been used fraudulently in a “phishing” e-mail scam aimed at tricking people into providing sensitive financial and personal data on replicated Web sites. Giving these phishers your account and other sensitive information may expose you to identity theft and other types of fraud.

Again, please remember that we will never email or call you to verify or obtain sensitive information. Please contact us at (800) 222-8877 or staff@paragonfcu.org to report suspicious activity or potential fraud.

Fraud Alert issued on 10-30-06

If you receive the following fraudulent emails that appears to be from Paragon Federal Credit Union that instructs you to go online to provide, verify or confirm financial or sensitive personal information, do not respond to it.  Please remember that we will never email or call you to verify or obtain sensitive information. 

Members have received the following fraudulent emails:

#1

Dear Member,

This is your official notification from Paragon Federal Credit Union that the service(s) listed below will be deactivated and deleted if not renewed immediately. Previous notifications have been sent to the Billing Contact assigned to this account. As the Primary Contact, you must renew the service(s) listed below or it will be deactivated and deleted.

Please click on the link below to login to your account:
<<Link removed>>

Service: IBRANCH and BillPayer.
Expiration: Oct,30 2006

Thank you for using Paragon FCU Online Banking service. We appreciate your business and the opportunity to serve you.

Paragon Federal Credit Union Member Service

***********************************************************************
IMPORTANT MEMBER SERVICE INFORMATION
***********************************************************************

Please do not reply to this message. For any inquiries, contact Member Service.

Copyright 2006 Paragon Federal Credit Union. All rights reserved.

#2

Dear customer:

We've recently noticed that someone has made [5] suspicious attemps to login into your online account from this address <<address removed>>, our security commitment forces us to block your account temporarily until you verify your identity on our systems

You can verify yourself at this form:

<<link removed>>

we apologize for the inconvinience this may cause, but security is one of our top goals in Paragon F.C.U. You have 72 hours to verify the information on our systems, if you do not verify yourself, your account will be suspended and sanctioned with thwo houndred dollars (200$), have to contact us by phone or fax in order to unlock your account. In case you can't verify your information in less than 72 hours, you may contact us at this number:

Phone (Worldwide) <<Number removed>>

Thank you.

These fraudulent emails contained Paragon Federal’s name and logo which have been used fraudulently in a “phishing” e-mail scam aimed at tricking people into providing sensitive financial and personal data on replicated Web sites. The links included in the original fraudulent email links you to a page that looks very similar to our iBRANCH login page. Giving these phishers your account and other sensitive information may expose you to identity theft and other types of fraud.

Again, please remember that we will never email or call you to verify or obtain sensitive information. Please contact us at (800) 222-8877 or staff@paragonfcu.org to report suspicious activity or potential fraud.

Fraud Alert issued on 10-16-06

If you receive the following fraudulent email that appears to be from Paragon Federal Credit Union that instructs you to go online to provide, verify or confirm financial or sensitive personal information, do not respond to it.  Please remember that we will never email or call you to verify or obtain sensitive information. 

Members have received the following fraudulent email:

Dear Paragon Federal Credit Union member,

It has come to our attention that your account (link removed) is being used by unauthorized persons. It is our duty to guarantee your online security, therefore you need to authenticate your account (link removed) information.
If you are the rightful holder of the account we strongly recommend to logon and authenticate (link removed) over a secure connection by clicking on the button below:                                                 If you dont get authenticated (link removed) within the next 48 hours, then we will assume this account is fraudulent and will be suspended.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and appreciate your assistance in helping us maintain the integrity of the entire Paragon Federal Credit Union Security Departament.
©2006 Paragon Federal Credit Union

This fraudulent email contained Paragon Federal’s name, logo, ATM and XPRESS Check Card images which has been used fraudulently in a “phishing” e-mail scam aimed at tricking people into providing sensitive financial and personal data on replicated Web sites. The links included in the original fraudulent email links you to a page that looks very similar to our iBRANCH login page. Giving these phishers your account and other sensitive information may expose you to identity theft and other types of fraud.

Again, please remember that we will never email or call you to verify or obtain sensitive information. Please contact us at (800) 222-8877 or staff@paragonfcu.org to report suspicious activity or potential fraud.

Fraud Alert issued on 9-22-06

If you receive the following fraudulent email that appears to be from Paragon Federal Credit Union that instructs you to go online to provide, verify or confirm financial or sensitive personal information, do not respond to it.  Please remember that we will never email or call you to verify or obtain sensitive information. 

Members have received the following fraudulent email:

Dear Paragon Federal Credit Union member,

It has come to our attention that your account (link removed) is being used by unauthorized persons. It is our duty to guarantee your online security, therefore you need to authenticate your account (link removed) information.
If you are the rightful holder of the account we strongly recommend to logon and authenticate (link removed) over a secure connection by clicking on the button below:                                                 If you dont get authenticated (link removed) within the next 48 hours, then we will assume this account is fraudulent and will be suspended.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and appreciate your assistance in helping us maintain the integrity of the entire Paragon Federal Credit Union Security Departament.
©2006 Paragon Federal Credit Union

This fraudulent email contained Paragon Federal’s name, logo, ATM and XPRESS Check Card images which has been used fraudulently in a “phishing” e-mail scam aimed at tricking people into providing sensitive financial and personal data on replicated Web sites. The links included in the original fraudulent email links you to a page that looks very similar to our iBRANCH login page. Giving these phishers your account and other sensitive information may expose you to identity theft and other types of fraud.

Again, please remember that we will never email or call you to verify or obtain sensitive information. Please contact us at (800) 222-8877 or staff@paragonfcu.org to report suspicious activity or potential fraud.

Fraud Alert issued on 8-25-06

We have been informed of the following fraudulent email. Users receive a spoofed email message with an invitation to take part in a survey. The email claims that $100 will be credited to the user's account for participating. The email provides a link to a phishing site that requests user account information for the promised credit.

This is a copy of the text that is included in the fraudulent email:

Dear Customer,

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

You have been chosen by Central Minnesota Federal Credit Union online department to take part in our quick and easy 5 question survey.
In return we will credit $100 to your account - Just for your time!

Helping us better understand how our customers feel benefits everyone.
With the information collected we can decide to direct a number of changes to improve and expand our online service.
The information you provide us is all non-sensitive and anonymous - No part of it is handed down to any third party groups.
It will be stored in our secure database for maximum of 3 days while we process the results of this nationwide survey.

We kindly ask you to spare two minutes of your time in taking part with this unique offer!

To Continue click on the link below:

(link removed for your security)

Warmly,
Central Minnesota Federal Credit Union
(credit union contact information included)

This email is an example of a "phishing" email. In the fraudulent scheme commonly known as "phishing', the perpetrator sends an email to consumers, falsely claiming to be from a legitimate company, in hopes of luring consumers to a "spoofed" website. The spoofed website mimics the legitimate website for the sole purpose of stealing the consumer's personal information. At the typical spoofed website, consumers are asked to update sensitive personal information, such as names, account and credit card numbers, passwords, Social Security numbers and other information. This information is used for identity theft and other types of fraud.

Please remember that we will never email or call you to verify or obtain sensitive information. Please contact us at (800) 222-8877 or staff@paragonfcu.org to report suspicious activity or potential fraud.

Fraud Alert issued on 8-21-06

If you receive the following fraudulent email that appears to be from Paragon Federal Credit Union and Élan Financial Services that instructs you to go online to provide, verify or confirm financial or sensitive personal information, do not respond to it.  Please remember that we will never email or call you to verify or obtain sensitive information. 

Members have received the following fraudulent email:

Dear Paragon Federal Credit Union Customer,

We recently reviewed your account, and suspect that your Paragon Federal
Credit Union  Internet Banking account may have been accessed by an
unauthorized third party.
Protecting the security of your account and of the Paragon Federal Credit
Union  network is our primary concern. Therefore, as a preventative measure,
we have temporarily limited access to sensitive account features.

To restore your account access, please take the following steps to ensure
that your account has not been compromised:

1. Login to your Paragon Federal Credit Union  Internet Banking account. In
case you are not enrolled for Internet Banking, you will have to fill in all
the required information, including your name and you account number.

2. Review your recent account history for any unauthorized withdrawals or
deposits, and check you account profile to make sure not changes have been
made. If any unauthorized activity has taken place on your account, report
this to Paragon Federal Credit Union Bank staff immediately.

To get started, please click the link below
(link removed for your security)
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and appreciate your assistance in helping us maintain the integrity of the entire Paragon Federal Credit Union Bank system. Thank you for attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

The Paragon Federal Credit Union  Team

Please do not reply to this e-mail. Mail sent to this address cannot be
answered. For assistance, log in to your Paragon Federal Credit Union  Bank
account and choose the "Help" link in the header of any page.

This fraudulent email contained Paragon Federal’s name and logo. These items have been used fraudulently in a “phishing” e-mail scam aimed at tricking people into providing sensitive financial and personal data on replicated Web sites. Giving these phishers your account and other sensitive information may expose you to identity theft and other types of fraud.

Again, please remember that we will never email or call you to verify or obtain sensitive information. Please contact us at (800) 222-8877 or staff@paragonfcu.org to report suspicious activity or potential fraud.

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