Scams

Find out about common scams to know what to avoid and get information on safety tips. 

SECURITY NOTICE: BEWARE OF SCAM CALLS

Recent Increase in Scam Calls

Scammers may call our members, pretending to be LAPFCU Associates with fake caller IDs, to steal personal or account information.

WHAT SCAMMERS MIGHT DO

  • Claim suspicious activity and request personal details/payment
  • Use real LAPFCU associate names or your personal details
  • Threaten to close your account/card unless you act immediately
  • Say LAPFCU is under federal investigation

PROTECT YOURSELF

  • Never share sensitive information—LAPFCU will never call you to ask for it
  • Ignore unusual requests or suspicious links
  • If you’re unsure, hang up and call LAPFCU directly at (877) 695-2732

KEEP YOURSELF SAFE

Scams trick victims into providing personal information through tactics such as phishing emails, fake social media accounts, and too-good-to-be-true offers. Stay alert to keep yourself, your information, and your privacy safe and secure.

REPORT SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY IMMEDIATELY TO LAPFCU AT (877) 695-2732

• We know this can be a difficult situation; trust us to help you

• We'll treat you with respect, dignity, and privacy

RECENT SCAMS & NEWS

SCAMMER SAFETY

Stay alert to typical scammer requests/actions, as they may:

  • Ask you to provide personal information or even transfer money by phone, text, or email to try to gain unauthorized access to your account.
  • Contact you and tell you they’ve noticed suspicious activity. They may ask you to send money to yourself using your mobile banking app to reverse the payment or prevent account depletion.
  • Place ads on social media marketplaces to sell goods and services. Often, these deals require customers to pay in advance. Once you pay the scammers, you won’t be able to contact them again.

Email phishing attacks and online malware attacks are common and dangerous. Stay alert and suspicious to protect yourself.

  • Be suspicious of urgent requests for personal financial information.
  • Be wary of threats, such as issues with your account that require immediate attention.
  • Look for typos and grammatical errors.
  • Check the sender’s email address to see if it’s been slightly altered.
  • Pay attention to generic greetings and signatures.
  • Don’t click on links in unsolicited emails, which may lead to spoof websites.
  • Don’t download attachments in unsolicited emails.
  • Don’t use links in an email, message, or chat to visit a webpage if you suspect the message is not authentic.
  • Turn on automatic software and operating system updates
  • Let your security software run automated scans
  • Install anti-virus software, anti-spyware programs and keep them updates
  • Use a firewall to prevent unauthorized access to your computers and devices
  • Don’t connect to a public Wi-Fi network, which is often unsecured
  • Don’t click on email links or respond to text messages someone you don’t know
  • Regularly back up your files to protect yourself if something goes wrong
  • Only download apps and software from official app stores and reputable sources
  • When in public, disable your device’s Wi-Fi and switch to a cellular network
  • If you’re buying something or filling out a form, make sure the address in the browser bar starts with “https://”; look for the secure icon, which is often a padlock
  • Watch out for phishing scams, quizzes, spam, free offers, and click bait

LAPFCU is a full service financial services provider for sworn and civilian law enforcement professionals of federal, state, county, and city agencies and their family members in Southern California.