FRAUD ALERT

ICUL, Service Corporation targeted by “phishers” sending fraudulent e-mails

Email phishing scams no longer seem to be only the concern of big banks and card issuers. Recently, credit unions of all sizes and CU organizations, including the Illinois Credit Union League (ICUL) and its subsidiary, the ICUL Service Corporation, have been the target of phishing emails. While they vary in their approach (some offer money to complete a survey and others claim a system upgrade requires updated account information), they all ask for sensitive data that should never be provided in response to an unsolicited email.

PLEASE NOTE: The ICUL Service Corporation and the Illinois Credit Union League will never request sensitive credit union or member information through a mass mailing.

If you have any questions about an email or other suspicious communication that appears to be from us, please call to confirm its authenticity before responding. Please see below for a recap of the phishing attempts against the ICUL and the ICUL Service Corporation, as well as some helpful links to phishing and identity theft resources.

ICUL Service Corp phishing attempt information

Sept. 25, 2006 update: The ICUL Service Corporation (LSC) has been alerted to fraudulent "phishing" e-mails that are circulating with subject line of "Banking Accounts Renewal". These fraudulent emails include a link to a page that looks very realistically like the LSC Web site and attempts to persuade recipients to renew their accounts due to many supposed complaints about unusual account activity. These messages are scams and should be deleted.

Illinois Credit Union League phishing attempt information

TO: Credit Union CEOs
DT: August 21, 2006
RE: “Phishing” scam/fraudulent e-mails involving ICUL

The Illinois Credit Union League (ICUL) has been alerted to fraudulent “phishing” e-mails that circulated this past weekend with subject lines of "Important Information from Customer Support Center" or "Important Notification about your Account", both of which included a link that attempted to persuade recipients to fill out an "Illinois Credit League Survey" for which they would be given $25 “for research purposes only”.

These messages are scams and should be deleted. There is no monetary award for filling out the form--this is an identity theft scam.

ICUL found that the link originally provided in the e-mail is no longer active. In addition, the e-mail address that was used to make the e-mails look like they were from the League was disabled.

Update: However, on Tuesday (August 22), there was an instance of the link being re-directed and re-appearing on a page of another apparently fraudulent site, but that page has since been taken down as well. Thus, ICUL is continually working to identify what can be done to further mitigate any activity.

ICUL will never solicit e-mails requesting your credit union username, password, pin number, or other personal identity information.

If you are aware this scam occurred at your credit union and/or if you are a credit union member that received the e-mail, please contact ICUL’s Member Services Department at (800) 942-7124.

Phishing/Identity Theft Resources