After my editor discovered an imposter Twitter handle for St. Pius X Church Federal Credit Union this week, we wanted to gage a reaction from the industry and find out what members should do before following or liking their credit union?s social media page.
Late Wednesday evening, another false Twitter account was discovered, this time for KUMC Credit Union ($26 million, Shawnee, KS). Credit Unions Online spoke with a credit union manager who said, to her knowledge no Twitter account was established by the credit union. The fake KUMC Twitter account is followed by at least four credit unions, Experian, and CU Insight - potentially assisting in making the Twitter account appear legitimate to KUMC members.
For the most part, many credit union professionals we contacted were unaware that scams like this were occurring and voiced concern that receiving false information through the phony site may mislead members to unknowingly provide financially sensitive data.
Although this appears to be a new malicious trend, Matt Hodson, marketing director at Health Care Credit Union ($65.5 million, Salt Lake City, UT) said that he was aware that fake accounts could surface but didn?t know of any specific instances at this time. Michelle Riemer, marketing specialist at Pioneer Credit Union ($420.2 million, Green Bay, WI) agrees saying that she?s been aware of this problem with Facebook in particular.
?I?m definitely aware of the media attention regarding Facebook in this area,? she says. ?Essentially it?s impersonating, in this case a credit union, for criminal intent. In respect to individuals who follow their credit unions online, they should never, ever share personal information such as an account number over any unsecure channel such as email, Twitter, Facebook or any other social medium.
Riemer adds that the best defense for credit unions is to closely monitor their online reputation. ?This however can be a very time-consuming process considering there are literally hundreds of places your brand could be mentioned online. Pioneer is currently evaluating three different vendors who offer services that not only monitor a brand online but also organizes a company?s social media in a manageable way for those who handle their social media themselves.?
Hodson suggests that members link from their credit union?s website and not from the Twitter or Facebook page. ?The biggest thing for members to do is only follow pages that are linked from the credit union's official website,? he says. ?If members are worried, they can always email their credit union directly to make sure the page is legit. If a member suspects the page might be a fraudulent duplicate they should notify the credit union immediately. The credit union could then work with either Facebook or Twitter to get the fraudulent page shut down. Affected credit unions can try and get their account ?Verified? through Twitter as that is set up for businesses/entities that have a possibility of being duplicated but that process can be difficult.?
Jennifer Sadler, manager for social media, marketing and advertising for Navy Federal Credit Union ($52 billion, Vienna, VA) says that members can also look for the checkmark inside a blue circle to determine if the account has been verified. However, she says that if the account has already been hacked the symbol may be irrelevant.
Contact your credit union to ensure you are following your credit union?s true Twitter or Facebook page.
From the Editor: Credit Unions Online follows nearly 1,000 credit union Twitter handles. We are currently working towards verifying each account we follow, since we may have been duped into following fake Twitter handles as well.
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