Recent scam campaigns involve fraudsters contacting clients and posing as fraud representatives within their financial institution, including Servus Credit Union. These are not actual representatives of the bank or credit union, but are impersonating them to take advantage of unsuspecting victims.

How it works

Vishing (voice phishing) is a social engineering cyber scam that involves deceiving people over the phone though voice calls or video calls. The goal of any social engineering campaign is to trick people into giving up sensitive information or convince them to perform certain actions.

These calls may involve, but are not limited to:

• A caller indicating that there is fraudulent activity on a banking profile or credit card.
• A caller stating that the fraudulent activity appears to be an 'inside job' to discourage you from hanging up and contacting your financial institution directly using known contact methods.
• Caller ID showing a phone number which appears to be coming from your financial institution (spoofed phone number).
• Caller may provide an alternate contact phone number, so that you can call them back directly.

What should you know

A Servus Credit Union representative or employee will never call you and ask you to:

• provide one-time codes sent through SMS, emails, voicemail, or an authenticator app to identify yourself.
• send money to yourself via interac e-transfer in order to secure your banking profile.
• make an interac e-transfer (Certapay) reference number or ask you to initiate any type of transaction on their behalf.
• download a remote access application (e.g. Anydesk) in order to share your screen.
• access your online banking to add payees on your behalf.
• assist in creating a new online banking password or PIN to validate your identity.
• go to a store to buy gift cards, deposit funds to a cryptocurrency wallet, or deposit funds to a Bitcoin ATM.

What should you do

1. Do not provide any online banking or private information to anyone who calls you. This includes information such as Online Banking passwords, answers to security questions, your Interac e-transfer reference number, or your member card/credit card PIN or CVV.
2. Never send a payment or Interac e-transfer at the request of someone advising you they are an employee of Servus.
3. Hang up and call us back. If you receive a call from Servus that sounds suspicious, hang up and call us using the number on the back of your member card or credit card. Even if it is a Servus representative contacting you, we will understand if you are more comfortable calling back. It's better to be safe than sorry.
4. Read more about prevention strategies and measures against vishing.

Servus Credit Union takes the security of its members very seriously. If you are asked to share your personal information through an unsolicited and suspicious email, website, mail or phone call that claims to be from Servus Credit Union, please report it to us immediately. Report by visiting your branch or calling our Member Contact Centre at 1.877.378.8728.