Valley hit with vishing

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Story Published: Sep 30, 2008 at 9:55 PM PST

Story Updated: Nov 21, 2008 at 2:07 AM PST

By Matt Loveless

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LEWISTON - "I answered the phone," said Lewiston resident Trina McMasters. "It said that it was Potlatch Number One Federal Credit Union, and that my card was deactivated. Then it's like, ‘oh can we have your PIN number,’ and I was like, 'I'm going to call the bank.'"

It was a good move by McMasters. She was getting scammed, but she wasn't the only one on Monday.

"Our members respond very well to situations regarding their accounts," said Potlatch Number One Federal Credit Union President Chris Loseth on Tuesday, after the onslaught of scam phone calls. "They trust to know the credit union, and they call and get the correct information from us and then deal with those types of scamming people that will contact them."

What happened Monday is called vishing. The term is a combination of "voice" and phishing. It’s done over land line phones usually. For victims in the Valley Monday, a South Carolina number showed up on the caller ID, but officials said that was not the source of the scam.

This is what would-be victims heard.

"Your card has been suspended, to reactivate your card now, please press one, and you will be transferred to our security department."

McMasters, who had just misplaced her credit card, said the recording sounded real enough.

"It sounded completely authentic," said McMasters. "Even with the PIN number it sounded right, but I was like, 'I don't care if it's my bank or not, I'm not putting my pin number in.'"

The fatal flaw for these scammers, Loseth said, was that they're doing something a credit union would never do.

"A financial institution already has the information that someone who's trying to scam you is trying to get," said Loseth. The customer needs to know that they only release information when they're dealing with people face to face, or verifiable folks that they know and trust."

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