Coast 360 Federal Credit Union has recently received reports of a suspected phishing scam, according to a press release.
The credit union confirmed an email with the subject “Online Banking Security Alert” was a phishing scam and warns members and residents who receive the email to ignore and delete it.
Phishing is the attempt to defraud an online account holder of financial information by posing as a legitimate company.
The email purporting to be from Coast 360 is from a fraudulent source and considered highly sophisticated, according to the press release.
“The message claims that a billing error has been detected and requests for the customer to log on using a provided link to update account information,” the release stated. “In the email, the perpetrators mask their fraudulent website link with the credit union’s website URL. The link opens a fraudulent site that looks very similar to Coast 360’s online banking page.”
Coast 360 advises anyone who has opened the link in the email or entered information into the fraudulent website to call the credit union immediately.
Coast 360 offers these tips for safeguarding your information:
• Coast 360 will never call, email or otherwise contact you and ask for your username, password or other online banking credentials.
• Coast 360 will never contact you to ask for your credit or debit card number, PIN or 4-digit security code.
• When using Coast Online, members must log on through the credit union’s official website: https://www.coast360fcu.com.