Skip to Content

Stay aware of scams

MIDFLORIDA will never contact you and ask for your personal or account information. If our card processor notices some transactions on your debit or credit card that seem questionable, they will contact you to confirm the transactions are valid. In this instance, you will be given a case number to refer to the incident. If you are not provided a case number, do not accept or return the call and contact the credit union immediately.

(863) 688-3733
(866) 913-3733 toll free

Text Scams

It is important to remember that MIDFLORIDA will not text you and ask you to verify any of your personal identifying  information pertaining to your account. Scammers have been impersonating MIDFLORIDA by sending text messages to members informing them that there has been unauthorized activity on their account and that their profile and/or credit or debit card has been suspended. The text then asks the member to restore their profile and/or card by clicking a fake link such as mid-floridafcu.com or midflorida-cu.com.

Please be aware that these types of messages are not from MIDFLORIDA. You will notice that these text messages are littered with asterisks (*) in the words "Un*authorized Act*ivity" or "unauth**orized acti*vity!" within the text copy and that there are several grammatical errors within the message. 

To protect yourself from any risk of fraud, please do not click on any links contained in these messages. We encourage you report the receipt of these texts to us.

Keep in mind that MIDFLORIDA's fraud alerts do not include a link and will only ask you to respond with a Y or N if you attempted a transaction.  You may also turn your debit card on or off in real time within Online  Banking or our mobile app.

Imitation Amazon Order Confirmations

Online shopping makes things easy and convenient. Unfortunately, cybercriminals like Amazon as much as you do. In fact, they've become quite good at creating and sending purchase confirmation emails that look as though they actually came right from this favorite online retailer.

In this scam, cybercriminals impersonate Amazon to send fake purchase confirmation emails in hopes of receiving a special holiday gift - i.e., your credit card information. Here's how this works:

Cybercriminals send you a fake purchase confirmation email that appears to come from Amazon. In this fake email, you can review details about your phony purchase, including the payment amount and your mailing address. To view the purchase further, you can click a "View or manage order" button in the email. If you click this button, you'll be taken to Amazon's real website, however, you won't be able to find information about the purchase. So, as a last resort, you can opt to call the customer service number in the email. If you call, you'll be asked to provide your credit card number and CVV number to cancel the purchase. The kicker is you're not really canceling a purchase - you're granting cybercriminals access to your credit card.

Keep in mind the following tips:

  • Watch out for fake customer service phone numbers. If you need assistance, check the vendor's website to find their customer service phone number or email address.
  • Don't click links in emails you weren't expecting. If you click a malicious link, malware or other malicious software may be downloaded on your device.
  • Don't share sensitive information, such as credit card numbers or social security numbers over the phone.

Digital Wallet Pickpocket Scam

While fraud can occur anytime of the year, the holiday season is prime time for card thieves to run wild. Be mindful of a debit and credit card scam that allows a fraudster to trick you into providing information necessary to allow them to load your cards into their digital wallets. Here's how it works:

A fraudster calls members from a spoofed MIDFLORIDA phone number and pretends to be a MIDFLORIDA representative. The fraudster states that they are contacting the member to alert them of a large transaction being authorized through their digital wallet. The fraudster explains that to prevent the transaction from clearing, they will need an authorization code from a text they say the credit union will send while on the phone with the fraudster.  In actuality, the code comes via text message from the member’s digital wallet service (ApplePay or SamsungPay). Once the fraudster has the authorization code, this allows them to tokenize the member’s debit and/or credit cards from the member’s digital wallet to use for their own contactless purchases at various retailers.

Be wary phone call, email, text or social media request for information on your digital wallet, debit and/or credit cards, account details or personal identifiable information. MIDFLORIDA will never contact you and ask for you for your personal or account information. If our card processor notices some transactions on your debit or credit card that seem questionable, they will contact you to confirm the transactions are valid. In this instance, you will be given a case number to refer to the incident. If you are not provided a case number, do not accept or return the call and contact the credit union immediately.

Economic Impact Payment Scams

The IRS is urging taxpayers to be on the lookout for scams relating to economic impact payments.

Ways to spot a potential scam:

  • Usage of phrases like "stimulus check" or "stimulus payment." The official term is economic impact payment.
  • Being asked to sign over your economic impact payment in exchange for receiving additional funds.
  • Requests by phone, email, text or social media for verification of personal and/or banking information. Fraudsters may claim the information is needed to receive or speed up your economic impact payment. The IRS will not call you asking you to verify financial information to expedite a payment.
  • Being asked by someone for personal information in order to get an economic impact payment faster by working on your behalf.
  • Being mailed a bogus check and asked to call or verify information online in order to cash it.

Proactive measures to help avoid becoming a scam victim:

  • Be wary of any email, text, phone call, or social media request for money or other personal identifiable information in exchange for receiving your payment more quickly.
  • Never send money to someone else in the hope of receiving additional money. The scam artist may call this a deposit, an advance, or a processing fee. This is always the sign of a scam.
  • Never give your personal or financial information over the phone.