A few moments ago I received the following text:
BFSFCU / This is an automated message from Bank-Fund Staff F.C.U. Your ATM card has been suspended. To reactivate call urgent at 202-729-8214
It’s too bad that I don’t bank with BFSFCU or might have fallen for this SMiShing scam. I called their phone number and told the service representative that the phone number I was told to call is a DC number, and not a 1-888 number which was currently on the website (above). Their customer service representative said that she’d notify their fraud department. I wonder who else got the text message?
UPDATE – exactly 9:30pm – I was at a birthday party in the basement of Napoleon Bistro in Adams Morgan and received second text message from the SMiSher. The message was exactly the same, except that the the phone number had changed to “1-202-729-8214″
UPDATE – 11:00pm – I returned home from the birthday party and noticed quite a few people got hit by the SMisher. Below are screen grabs of those who were searching for more information about this fraud.
More Updates:
UPDATE – 11:30pm – This same scam happened last week in Minnesota to U.S. Bank customers
UPDATE – 12/18/08 – 12:40pm – The scammers also hit people in West Virginia yesterday, but used a different text message.
UPDATE – 12/18/08 – 12:45pm – Upon visiting the BFSFCU website, I noticed that they had updated the page at 10:08am this morning, but did not include the 202 number I was fraudulently told to call.
UPDATE – 12/18/08 – 2:15pm – I decided to call the number and found that it has been disconnected. But will this same scam resurface again? My bets are on yes, but it will probably be done with a different bank and a slightly different strategy.
UPDATE – 1/16/09 – 11:55pm – Wrote a blog entry about the second scam to hit the Washington, DC area.
UPDATE – 2/13/09 – 5:00pm – It looks like the Community Bank of Nevada was just hit by the same scam:
