An e-mail message purports to be from SSA under the subject line, "Cost-of-Living for 2007 update." The message provides information about a 3.3% benefit increase for 2007 and advises recipients to update their personal information by using the link to an SSA website lookalike. It warns that if they don't, the SSA will suspend their account indefinitely.

Once directed to the phony website, recipients are asked to register for a password and to confirm their identity with their Social Security number, bank account information and credit card information.

It took phishers about three weeks to come up with the scam, which piggybacks on SSA's annual October announcement of the cost-of-living increase for the following year for the nation's 49 million Social Security recipients (WashingtonPost.com Nov. 13).

In a press release, SSA Commissioner Jo Anne Barnhart said she was "outraged that someone would target an unsuspecting public in this manner." She asked the Inspector General Patrick O'Carroll Jr. to use all resources at his command to find and prosecute the phishers.

Credit unions can take the opportunity to remind their members that they should never give out personal identification and account information in unsolicited e-mails and unsolicited phone calls, and they should not follow unsolicited web links received in e-mail messages.