Military Members – Beware of a Fraudelant Navy Federal Credit Union Website

Online scam artists are once again targeting the online military community, this time with a fraudulent Navy Federal Credit Union website.

After randomly running a search on Google for “Navy Fed” instead of its longer name, the first return was the official website, located at www.navyfederal.com. Right below it was a singular dodgy-looking website located at https://myaccountsaws.navyfcu.org. At first glance, one can see how a user unfamiliar with the website can become confused or miss the difference all together.

The fraudulent website is very bare though if one didn’t know better it does have the same characteristics of the legitimate website’s login section. Already knowing this site was a scam, I clicked on the “Forgot Your Password?” link to see what buffoonery was in that section. Sure enough it asked for your Access Number (a.k.a. account number), name, date of birth, user ID and Social Security Number – everything a thief needs to take over your financial life. Please look at the two pictures attached to this article to familiarize yourself with this fake website.

One word of advice for all secured websites – when logging onto any website, one way to ensure you’re not being duped is to look for the main website name in the website’s address root. Using the Navy Federal Credit Union website as an example, the login screen is located at www.navyfederal.com. The loan department is at www.navyfederal.com/loans. Notice how “navyfederal” always follows the www.

On the fraudulent website, many links do lead to the real Navy Federal website, however the login page and the “Forgot Your Password?” page go here: https://myaccounts.navyfcu.org/ and https://myaccountsaws.navyfcu.org/mfnfopwd/. Notice how myaccounts comes before the inaccurate “navyfcu”. This should set off red flags in your mind. The https is their cunning way of tricking more internet-savvy individuals into thinking the website is legitimate as the “s” stands for a secure connection. Don’t let it fool you. The website may indeed be secure but it is secured by thieves.

Another tell-tale sign of bad intentions is when you are prompted for your Social Security Number, such as our good friends at the fraudulent Navy Federal website. Legitimate companies use customer identification techniques such as challenge questions and E-mail addresses. When in doubt, call the company in question. These days customer service representatives at most companies can assist you with your login issues, just make sure you get the phone number off of a statement or your credit card and not an iffy website.

The best way to keep yourself safe is to bookmark your banking websites. This way you will be less likely to do a search and have a run-in with a website that could lead to identity theft.

Reference:

• www.navyfederal.com