Card Cracking has been in the local news recently and it’s becoming more common place in our local colleges and university and it’s a problem.

Here is a good explanation of card-cracking from Wells-Fargo:

You see a post on social media (primarily Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) about making quick and easy money. The scammer will ask you for your debit card and Personal Identification Number (PIN) in order to deposit a check into your account. In exchange for your information, the scammer promises you a portion of the funds being deposited. After receiving your account information, the scammer deposits a fake check into your account, via ATM, mobile deposit or other method. The scammer immediately withdraws the deposited funds from your account, sometimes resulting in an overdraft. They may then direct you to report a lost or stolen card to the bank and seek a reimbursement for the “stolen funds.”

Tips:

• Your participation turns you into a co-conspirator.
• If you take part in a card-cracking scam, you could lose more than just the funds in your account. It is illegal to knowingly deposit bad checks and can result in both hefty fines and criminal charges. 
• If it seems too good to be true, it usually is.
• Don’t respond to online solicitations from people you don’t know. 
• Never share your banking information with others.

Other common scams to watch for:

• Do not cash checks for strangers, no matter how compelling their story.
• Do not wire funds to people you do not know and trust well. This scam is often seen with on-line dating relationships.
• If you are informed you have won the lottery, know that legitimate lotteries pay the taxes to the government. They do not ask the winner to pay.
• Government agencies do not spontaneously award free grants. Do not pay processing fees for a grant you did not submit.
• Offers to perform minimal work from home for a lot of money are typically scams. Do not accept any work-at-home opportunities that involve processing checks or electronic payments through your personal account. This includes “mystery shoppers.”
• If you are selling an item or renting property, never accept a check for more than the purchase or rental amount. Do not return “just the difference.“
• Do not share your Internet Banking password with anyone. Do not allow anyone permission to remotely deposit a check into your account.

Always double check any offer that seems extremely good in your favor. Ask for references and numbers where you can initiate a call and verify who you are speaking with.

Remember that any of the above scams can result in you being liable for the money involved.

Be Alert and Aware at ATMs

• Use familiar, well lit ATMs whenever possible.
  If you need to use a non-ELGA ATM, make sure that it’s clear of obstructions and you know where the blind spots are located.
• Familiarize yourself with your ATM and make sure there are no signs of tampering.
  The card reader should be secure and the lights working.
• Leave immediately if you see anyone you feel is suspicious.
• Come to the ATM prepared to make your transaction quickly.
  Take your money immediately from the machine when it’s dispensed, don’t allow yourself to be distracted during your transaction.
• Don’t let anyone stand near enough to read your PIN as you enter it.
  Shield the keypad with your hand.
• Do NOT count your money at the machine, wait until you have left and are secure.
• Do NOT throw your ATM receipt away at the ATM location.
• ALWAYS make sure you have your card, your money and your receipt.
• Do NOT write your PIN on your card, or keep a record of your PIN in your wallet or purse.

Be Smart about Mobile Banking

• Make sure your devices are updated with the latest software
• Download your apps only from trusted stores (Apple App Store or Google Play)
• Make sure your device is password protected
• Do NOT send information over public Wi-Fi networks, use cellular data when using your banking app.
• Do NOT store your passwords or sensitive information on your phone.
• Check your mobile device privacy settings

Stay Safer Online

• Check Your Accounts Often to make sure they are correct.
  Report incorrect transactions immediately.
• Buy only from trusted websites. Pay attention to the URL when you enter your payment info.
  You should not enter sensitive information when the URL shows HTTP://, it should be HTTPS:// with no errors.
• Avoid clicking links on email or social media.
  Go directly to the site instead by entering the URL.
• Save all records of your online transactions.

Have a safe and wonderful 2016!

The Co-Op Financial Services team is reporting an increasing number of ATM skimming cases so far this holiday season.

ATM skimming, of course, is like identity theft for debit cards. Fraudsters use hidden electronics to steal the personal information stored on a card, and record the owner’s PIN number to access the hard-earned cash in the member’s account.

Further research by CO-OP finds that about 75 percent of the ATM skimming cases occur at off-premise ATMs.

Here are three tips to keep your money safer when  you use an ATM:

Protect Your PIN

Hidden cameras are often used to steal your PIN. Covering the keyboard as you enter your PIN is a simple way to help avoid theft. Never give your PIN to anyone. And, do not use any ATM with a card reader that appears altered.

Stay Away from Unfamiliar ATMs

The safest ATMs are those with the logo of your credit union and, of course, CO-OP ATM.

Check Your Balances Frequently

If you notice something wrong, use the contact number on the back of your debit card to report any fraudulent withdrawals.

Cyber Monday promises a ton of deals for the savvy shopper. Scammers know this and they are ready with emails to flood your inbox with false promises.

Before you click on that amazing deal you see in your inbox, make sure you’re going to a legitimate page. Do this by hovering over the link and looking at the destination URL that shows. It should take you to the main site for that business. Here are two that don’t!

Question the great deals you see to make sure you’re getting what you what from the actual business to stay safe from scams during the holidays and after!

Happy Real Deal Finding!

It’s time for another reminder to always be vigilant to avoid communicating private information via unsecured emails.

Please be aware of any e-mail that asks you to log in to your account, verify your account, or provide any other identity information. Be wary no matter what reason is given, and no matter how convincing the e-mail may be.

Follow these simple rules and you should be safe:

• Don’t click on any links within an e-mail asking you to access your account or to verify PIN numbers, passwords, or other sensitive information.
• If you get an e-mail that appears to be from ELGA Credit Union asking you to log in or for other private information, immediately contact your member services group at (810) 715-3542 and report the incident. Be prepared to forward a copy of the message to them for review if requested to do so.
• If you or someone in your family mistakenly follows a link and provides sensitive information, immediately call your financial institution so they can monitor your account and lock down accounts at risk.
• Remember, the thief copies text and images from banking websites to make the e-mails look authentic and fool people into divulging sensitive information.
• Never give out your personal or account login information after following a link from an e-mail, even as “identity verification” for a contest. Attackers frequently use such tactics to lure you into giving up identifying information.

If you need to communicate with us electronically, we recommend using the Message Center option inside of XpressLink Internet Banking or the Messages option in  the XpressLink Mobile app.

ELGA Credit Union has taken strong measures to ensure the security and safety of your account and its overall online banking system. By staying alert to potential security threats and keeping in mind the suggestions listed above, you can help us keep online banking extremely safe and secure. Follow the good practices and use the knowledge we’ve provided here, and you will be much more prepared to enjoy the conveniences of online services with peace of mind!

For more information about staying safe on the Internet, please consider visiting our Digital Defense affiliate site  to read a variety of electronic training, awareness, and education modules.

As a special thank you for signing up for the ELGA Alerts blog we want you to be the very first to get access to the New XpressLink Mobile Banking App.

New! -Remote Deposit (deposit checks from your phone!)
New! -Pay Anyone through PayPal from the app
New! -ELGA Credit and Debit Card controls

The new app was just released to the App Store and Google Play and we wanted to tell you about it before we start notifying the rest of the membership. We really think you are going to love the new features such as Mobile Check Deposit and Card Controls. There is also a new feature where you can pay anyone through Paypal!

To get started: visit the app store and download the new ELGA Credit Union app! Just search XpressLink. If you have our old app, please delete it. It will no longer work after the end of October.

If you have never used any of our XpressLink services you will first need to sign up for XpressLink Internet Banking at www.ELGACU.com and set up XpressLink login information. You will set up your information there to log into the XpressLink Mobile app.

Thank you for letting us share this news with you early.

We love your feedback! Tell us what you think? Email us at Programs@ELGACU.com

-Your ELGA Marketing Team

The parking lot at our Burton location will be closed for resurfacing at 1:00 pm on Saturday, October 10. The ATMs at this location will not be accessible during the resurfacing. We will reopen the lot on Tuesday, October 13.

We appreciate your patience while we improve our parking area.

For your convenience, please remember that you can use any ATM in the Co-Op Network fee free. The link below will allow you to search for fee free ATMs from your computer or any mobile device.

Co-Op ATM Locator – Click Here

ELGA Credit Union has been working diligently to bring our members EMV enabled credit and debit cards. Before we start replacing old cards with these new cards, we want to make sure that our current cardholders know that nothing changes with how you are covered for fraud.

Why we are doing this?
In an effort to reduce fraud in the payment system, there will be a change to liability rules in October 2015. These new rules do not affect cardholders, and will primarily affect card issuers and merchants. With these new rules, responsibility for counterfeit card fraud will shift the burden to the party using the least secure technology. This would be either the card issuer or the merchant. If both or neither parties have adopted chip technology, the liability stays the same as it is today; liability falls to the card issuer.

The most important thing to remember is that for you, the cardholder, your liability isn’t changing at all, you will still have zero fraud liability on your Visa cards. The big difference is that more merchants will have EMV compatible card readers and more card issuers will be issuing (or reissuing) cards that come with an EMV chip to reduce their own liability.

ELGA wants you to feel free to use your card with complete confidence. In the unlikely event that fraud occurs, Visa’s Zero Liability policy means you won’t be held responsible for fraudulent charges made with your card or account information. You must still notify us promptly of any unauthorized use.

What is EMV?
EMV cards (named for the original developers of the chip technology: Europay, MasterCard® and Visa®), are cards with a microchip. This feature makes it more difficult to copy and reproduce payment information than cards with only a traditional magnetic stripe technology. Traditional magnetic stripe cards store static data, which can easily be used to create a counterfeit copy of the card.

Chip-enabled cards are inserted into a card reader and held there during the transaction, rather than swiped. The embedded microchip creates dynamic data unique to each transaction. This data is then verified by the seller’s chip-enabled card reader to ensure authenticity.

ELGA Credit Union and other financial institutions will be reissuing chip cards to replace their current credit and debit cards gradually over the next year. The new card will have the EMV chip visible on the card. The magnetic stripe on the back of the card ensures that the card is still usable at merchants without upgraded payment technology. If the merchant doesn’t have a chip reader, or if it isn’t yet enabled, simply swipe your card as usual.

Make sure you subscribe to the ELGA Alerts Blog to get our important member messages delivered straight to your inbox. Instructions for subscribing are in the Subscribe Here box on this page.

If you are ever in a situation where you try to use a VISA or MasterCard debit card with your PIN and your transaction is denied, please try the transaction again, but have the merchant run it as a credit card.

Interbank networks (i.e. Maestro, Cirrus, NYCE, Money Pass, Plus) occasionally go down. These are the services that talk to your financial institution to verify your PIN based transactions. If the interbank network can’t communicate back to the financial institution that issued the card, the PIN will be denied. But if you use your debit card as a credit card, the verification goes to VISA or MasterCard.

We hope this information makes it even easier for you to rely on your debit card working when you need it.

A recent Facebook Meme for Mother’s Day could potentially hand valuable information about your children over to criminals. The meme asks you to post your children’s names, birth dates, birth weights and other information.

A child’s identity is a blank slate, which unfortunately makes their social security numbers very attractive to criminals. Parents typically don’t monitor their children’s identities, so it could take years before fraud is detected.

The potential impact of identity fraud on a child’s future is profound; it could destroy or damage the ability to get student loans, obtain a job or secure a place to live.

Don’t post information about your kids on Facebook that you wouldn’t consider giving to a telemarketer.

The following are tips from a Carnegie Mellon report on Child Identity Theft:
“Here are several signs that can tip you off to the fact that someone has misused your child’s personal information.

• Watch for mail in your child’s name: If you begin receiving pre-approved credit cards or other unsolicited financial offers in your child’s name, it is an indicator that your child may have an open credit file.
• Teach your child about identity theft and online safety: Talk to your child about the dangers of sharing personal data online. Children surfing the web are particularly vulnerable to exposing personal information in chat rooms or on social networking sites. Make sure children understand the importance of keeping this data private.
• Don’t make your child susceptible to “friendly” identity theft: Don’t ever use your child’s name to open utility or other credit accounts. Protect your child’s personal information by keeping it locked up in your home where visitors cannot access it.
• Keep your child’s sensitive documents safe: Gauge your child’s level of responsibility before you share banking and credit information with them, even accounts in their name. Most children will need their Social Security card when they go off to college, but make sure they know to keep their card in a safe place rather than carry it around in a wallet or purse.”