At Bellco, we consistently monitor and investigate fraudulent communications that ask Bellco members for personal information. In a process known as “phishing,” these deceptive emails, texts, and phone calls fraudulently claim to be from a wide variety of sources, including Bellco or government regulators.
These communications often contain clever and compelling language that prompt recipients to click on links or call phone numbers included in the body of the communication. The links often lead to fraudulent websites that appear legitimate and ask for personal or account information.
Many financial institutions have also seen an uptick in attempted fraudulent activity through P2P payment services like Zelle® or Venmo. As a reminder, you should only use these services with known and trusted friends and family.
Bellco will never send you an email, phone call, or text asking for your:
- Credit or debit card number
- Social Security number
- Online Banking username
- Online Banking password
- Online Banking challenge questions
How to report suspected phishing scams
If you suspect that an email, text message, or phone call claiming to be from Bellco is fraud, please fill out our Fraudulent Activity form and provide basic information about the communication. Bellco will promptly research the issue and follow up, if necessary.
IMPORTANT: If you have supplied your personal information in response to any fraudulent email, text message, or phone call, please call Bellco’s Fraud Dept. immediately at 303-689-7548
Ways you can better protect yourself against fraud
You can be your own first line of defense against phishing and fraud.
- Be aware. Legitimate businesses do not make unsolicited calls asking for personal, sensitive information. If you receive an unsolicited call, email, or text asking for this, it is likely a scam.
- Don’t give in to pressure. Scammers may try to intimidate you into giving your personal information—if so, simply hang up and call your financial institution.
- Don’t answer phone calls from unknown numbers. Valid callers will leave a message.
- Don’t trust the phone number or name that appears on your Caller ID. These numbers can be imitated.
- Don’t respond to unverified SMS texts asking you to call your financial institution. Text messages from financial institutions never contain requests for confidential information.
- If you do receive a text or voice message asking you to call your financial institution, please call using the known number(s). For Bellco, you can always call 1-800-BELLCO-1.
Example of a phishing email
Bellco did not send the email shown below; it is one example of an attempt to obtain Online Banking login credentials from Bellco members.
Subject: Security Update
Dear Bellco Credit Union Member,
We are currently performing regular maintenance of our security measures.
Your account has been randomly selected for this maintenance, and you will now be taken through a series of identity verification pages. If you do not perform this identity verification process in the next 24 hours, your account will be suspended.
To continue click here, and fill in the correct information to verify your identity.
Thank you for using Bellco Credit Union.
Bellco Credit Union Customer Service
