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ECU Fraud Protection Products Contact Information
Lost or stolen Check/Debit Cards: 1-800-472-3272
In addition, call ECU’s Department of Special Services (DSS) during regular business hours at 806-358-7777 or 800-687-8144.
Lost or stolen Credit Cards: 1-800-442-4757
In addition, call ECU’s Credit Card Department during regular business hours at 806-358-7777 or 800-687-8144.
Fraud Plus Identity Protection Program: 1-800-251-2311
Credit Bureaus:
Identity Theft 911: 1-866-602-2056
They will ask you for your ID number. You can find this number on your membership features pamphlet. If you have any questions please call a Member Services Representative at 806-358-7777 or 1-800-687-8144.
Identity Theft has been called the crime of the 21st Century. A new law has been passed in Texas relating to preventing identity theft. It allows the identity theft victim to place a Fraud Alert on their credit file at no cost.
A Fraud Alert is a 90 day alert on your credit file that blocks any information from being shared so that potential identity thieves can't obtain your information. It prohibits by law the credit reporting agency from releasing the consumer’s credit report or any information from it without the express authorization of the consumer. If you think you are a victim of identity theft you can go to www.annualcreditreport.com to file an alert that will be sent to all three major credit bureaus.
For additional information, you can click on http://www.consumersunion.org/campaigns/learn_more/003484indiv.html and select your state’s instructions link.
Financial related frauds have become one of the major concerns facing consumers in recent years. To combat the growing threat, the US Government has set-up a StopFraud.gov website, which is joint task force comprised of many government agencies (FBI, DOJ, DOL, Federal Reserve, Secret Service, etc). The website has an electronic “Report Suspected Fraud” hyperlink which will direct users on how to report any type of fraud—everything from elder abuse to securities fraud. Since this joint task force was launched in 2009, over $10 billion dollars in various fraud scheme losses have been uncovered nationwide involving well over 142,000 victims. It’s a great resource—check it out today.
http://www.stopfraud.gov/index.html
The IRS is grappling with a nearly five-fold increase in taxpayer identity theft between 2008 and 2010, a Government Accountability Office official plans to tell a House hearing Thursday. There were 248,357 incidents in 2010, compared to 51,702 in 2008.
The GAO findings, obtained by The Associated Press, don't begin to describe the pain for a first-time victim, who must wait for a refund while the IRS sorts out which return is real and which is a fraud.
Many identity thieves don't get prosecuted, according James White, director of strategic issues for the GAO..
"IRS officials told us that IRS pursues criminal investigations of suspected identity thieves in only a small number of cases," White says in testimony prepared for a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee.
He said that in the 2010 fiscal year, the IRS criminal investigations division initiated just over 4,700 investigations of all types — far less than the identity theft cases alone.
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