Phishing scams continue to be a popular method for identity thieves to extract valuable information from unsuspecting targets.  In the traditional method, victims receive an official looking email from a bank or service provider requesting account information.  A new scam began today involving Vantage Credit Union and used a text message, rather than emails to solicit a response.  The medium may have changed from email to text, but the goal is the same: gaining access to your sensitive information.

The text message was sent to both members of the St. Louis area Vantage CU as well as non-members.

The message varied, but followed this basic form:

MSG: Vantage CU urgent notification: unusual activity, please verify your account at [www.

Recipients who went to the indicated website (omitted here to prevent anyone from visiting inadvertently)  were actually going to a false site designed to look like the actual Vantage Credit Union site.  The real VCU site, has more information about this incident as well as what to do if you responded to the message.

What today’s incident should remind us all is that unsolicited messages cannot be trusted.  Sure, some banks use text messages to alert their customers and this could have been an legitimate alert.  To be sure, always call your service provider (or visit their website) directly rather than following the link or instructions in an unsolicited message.