Under NO circumstances will the New Hampshire Postal CU (or its affiliates) either e-mail or call to ask you for your Account Number, PIN, Password, or any other personal information.

Do not under any circumstances respond to any e-mail asking for your personal information.

Read below  to find out more about fraudulent e-mail and phone calls (known as "Phishing" and/or "Vishing").

A new e-mail “phishing” scam seeks to plant malicious software on the computers of recipients who open an attachment purportedly related to the purchase of an airline ticket.

The fake e-mails use the names of various U.S. airlines including Northwest Airlines, Continental Airlines, Sun Country Airlines, US Airways, Allegiant Air, Delta Air Lines, Alaska Airlines, Midwest Airlines, and Hawaiian Airlines.
The e-mail messages urge recipients to confirm a ticket purchase they never ordered. The e-mail requires an entry by thanking recipients for buying the tickets using the “Buy flight ticket online” service offered by the airline. Giving fake details of the purchased ticket, it asks them to confirm the purchase by printing the invoice and the ticket after clicking on an attachment in the mail.

However, when unsuspecting recipients click on the e-mail, a malicious software program downloads onto their computers. This “malware” enables the fraudsters to gain confidential information such as credit card access codes, Social Security numbers, and net banking passwords by allowing them remote access to the computers.

Airlines say there are a couple of things inside the mail that should warn people of the scam. The e-mails contain mistakes in spelling and grammar, and the formats in which the itineraries are presented are different than those used by the airlines.

Members should be aware that these e-mails are not coming from the airline. If the format does not look familiar to you, and you have not recently purchased a ticket, do not open the attachment. Delete the e-mail right away.

Below is an example of an e-mail received by a credit union executive:

From: Hawaiian Airlines [mailto:tegoo@qq.com]
Sent: Thursday, November 13, 2008 4:24 PM
To: James Mxxxx
Subject: Your flight ticket

Dear Valued Customer
Thank you for using our new service ‘Buy airplane ticket Online” on our website.

Your account has been created:
Your login: 1mooreDacu,com
Your password: PASS8QBE

Your credit card has been charged for $424.85.

We would like to remind you that whenever you order tickets on our website you get a discount of 10%! Attached to this message is the purchase Invoice and the airplane ticket. To use your ticket, simply print it on a color printed, and you are set to take off for the journey!

Kind regards,
Hawaiian Airlines

With the holiday season here, Members increasingly use their debit cards to make purchases at the mall, on the Internet, or over the telephone. When plastic card use increases this time of year, so do the scams.

A new twist on phishing aims to obtain the three-digit security code printed on the back of MasterCard debit cards. The phishers are trying to get enough information to perform fraudulent card-not-present transactions (Internet, telephone, and mail-order purchases).

Under this scam, a telephone call is placed to a legitimate cardholder.  The caller claims to be a representative from MasterCard informing the cardholder of suspicious card activity. The caller provides details of an unusual transaction and asks if the cardholder made this purchase, which, of course, the cardholder did not. The cardholder is then asked to verify possession of the card. To do so, the cardholder is asked to read the three-digit security code on the back of the card. The fraudster then provides a control number in the event the cardholder needs to call back with questions, making the call seem legitimate.

The caller does not ask for the credit or debit card number, and that is why some members are fooled into believing the call is legitimate. But the fraudster already has the card number; what they don’t have is the three-digit security code from the back of the card, and that is what they are after with this scam.

The three-digit code on the back of the MasterCard card is a security tool used for non face-to-face transactions. When conducting transactions that are not face-to-face, many merchants will ask the shopper for the three-digit code to complete a card authorization. If the criminal obtains this three-digit number and already has your member’s card number, card expiration date, and billing address, the criminal may be able to obtain authorization for fraudulent transactions. 
 
Members should never give out that three-digit code to anyone who may contact them by telephone, Internet, or mail. This security tool is used when a card-not-present transaction is performed, and during the transaction the merchant may ask for the code to complete the authorization process.

REMEMBER:  Never respond to any e-mail, telephone call, voice message, text message, or letter received through the mail that requests personal and financial information, including the three-digit number on the back of the card.

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.