Zelle Scam Warning

There is a consumer warning about a scheme involving Zelle®. Scammers may send text messages, emails or phone calls impersonating your financial institution. They trick you into sharing personal information like login credentials or account numbers. Then they use the information to access the account and perform fraudulent transactions using Zelle. They may tell you that a transaction is on hold pending authorization or that your credentials are needed to unlock your account after a suspicious login attempt.

Here are tips on how to avoid a spoofing attack and what to do if it happens to you:

• Provident Credit Union will never contact you to ask you to verify your account and security information.
• Provident will never contact you to ask you to use Zelle to transfer yourself funds.
• Scammers may contact you via phone, email, or text message representing themselves as a Provident employee. If they ask for personal or security information, you should hang up immediately and ignore the message. This may include account password, PIN, mother’s maiden name, date of birth, social security number, or other personal information.
• Do not reply to or provide the code to someone representing themselves as a Provident employee. This is an attempt to defraud you and gain access to your mobile payment account.
• Do not allow 3rd parties, whom you do not trust or know, access to your computer via a screen sharing.
• Do not provide your online banking credentials to anyone.
• If you are contacted by someone representing themselves as a Provident employee, ignore the message or hang up immediately. When in doubt, contact Provident directly at (800) 632-4600 to confirm. Do not rely on any contact information provided in the potentially fraudulent messages.