Ohio Catholic FCU received a few phone calls from members regarding automated calls received about their credit cards.  The automated calls states – your credit card is deactivated and instructs you to input your 16-digit credit card number.  This is a PHISHING SCAM.  Please do not provide any credit card information.  

If you have given out your credit card account information, please contact Ohio Catholic FCU as soon as possible. Ohio Catholic FCU will close your current credit card to prevent any fraudulent activity and issue a new credit card.  When calling Ohio Catholic please have your account number and the last for digits of your credit card number available.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has received numerous reports of suspicious telephone calls where the caller claims to represent the FDIC and is calling regarding the collection of an outstanding debt.

To date, the callers have alleged that the call recipient is delinquent in payment of a loan that was applied for over the Internet or made through a payday lender. The loan may or may not actually exist. The caller attempts to authenticate the claim by providing sensitive personal information, such as name, Social Security number and date of birth, supposedly taken from the loan application. The recipient is then strongly urged to make a payment over the phone to “avoid a lawsuit and possible arrest.” In some instances, the caller is said to sound aggressive and threatening.

These suspicious telephone calls are fraudulent. Recipients should consider them as an attempt to steal money or collect personal identifying information. The FDIC generally does not initiate unsolicited telephone calls to consumers and is not involved with the collection of debts on behalf of operating lenders and financial institutions.

If a caller demonstrates that he or she has the recipient’s sensitive personal information, such as Social Security number, date of birth and bank account numbers, the recipient may be the victim of identity theft and should review his or her credit reports for signs of possible fraud. The individual should also consider placing a “fraud alert” on his or her credit reports. This can be done by contacting one of the three consumer reporting companies listed below. Only one of the three companies needs to be contacted. That company is required to contact the other two, which will place an alert on their versions of the report.

• TransUnion: 1-800-680-7289; Fraud Victim Assistance Division, P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, California 92834-6790
• Equifax: 1-800-525-6285; P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, Georgia 30374-0241
• Experian: 1-888-EXPERIAN (397-3742); P.O. Box 9554, Allen, Texas 75013

Please know that you Ohio Catholic Accounts have not been compromised and are safe. Please do not respond to these emails or open the attachments. Ohio Catholic would never contact a member via email to let them know there accounts have been frozen.

 If you have any questions, please let me know.

Stephanie Thomas, CUCE, BSACS
Operations Associate
Ohio Catholic FCU
Phone 216.663.6800 x259
Fax     216.663.2913