MADISON, Wis. (10/29/07)--A new phishing-scam attempt using the Credit Union National Association's name informs recipients about "irregular check card activity" and advises them to call a toll-free number to get any restrictions removed.

That is a "bad idea," says Dorothy Steffens, CUNA's vice president of web services.

The call is a ploy to get personal account information, possibly for identity theft purposes.

Recipients received a message as a "CUNA Alert: Irregular Check Card Activity" on Thursday. It says:

"We detected irregular activity on check card on Oct. 25/2007. For your protection, you must reactivate your card. Call us immediately at 1.866.840.2863. We will review the activity on your account with you and upon verification, we will remove any restrictions placed on your account. Please disregard this notice if you have already accessed the website or spoken with one of our representatives."

As a trade association for U.S. credit unions, "CUNA does not maintain any type of customer/member financial information," emphasized Steffens, adding that "your financial institution would never request personal identification information over the phone."

Anyone responding to the e-mail should contact their financial institution directly using the phone number provided by it, she said.

Also, another phish making the rounds earlier with CUNA's name on it comes from a gmail.com address and addresses "Credit Union National Association SERVICE." It says CUNA ensures security "by regularly screening the accounts in our system. We recently reviewed your account, and we need more information to help us provide you with secure service." It provides a "case ID" and a link to a fake website mimicking CUNA's.

Recipients should not click on the resource link but should delete it. CUNA has taken steps to shut down the fake site.