The Fairfield Federal Credit Union office is warning FFCU members and some individuals not affiliated with the credit union about a recent incident of “SMISHING” text messages being sent to cellular phones in the Jefferson County area and seeking personal account information.

DON’T GIVE ANY OF YOUR PERSONAL OR ANY ACCOUNT RELATED INFORMATION TO ANYONE THAT YOU DO NOT TRUST. YOUR CREDIT UNION WILL NEVER ASK FOR YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION VIA TEXT MESSAGE, EMAIL OR BY PHONE.

If your information is ever solicited by any of these means, please contact us immediately at (870) 536- 6665.

TERMS & DEFINITIONS:

" IDENTITY THEFT" is the theft of a person's financial information, esp. credit cards and Social Security number, with the intention of using that data to commit fraud and create a phony persona.

"PHISHING" is the process of seeking to obtain personal information illegally through email or pop-up messages in order to deceive you into disclosing your credit card numbers, bank account information, Social Security number, passwords, or other sensitive information.

"VISHING" is short for "voice phishing". In a new twist, identity thieves are sending spam that warns victims that their credit union/bank account or PayPal accounts were supposedly compromised. However, unlike typical phishing emails, there is NO website address, instead the victim is urged to call a phone number to verify account details. Vishing also comes in the form of phone calls. Never call a number you receive from a spam email and certainly DO NOT enter/disclose any private information. If you want to call your Credit Union, use the normal phone number you regularly use, not the phone number you get in an email.

"SMISHING" is a text-message fraud that occurs when criminals, posing as financial institutions, attempt to dupe mobile-phone users into sending personal information through text messaging.