The NCUA received consumer calls about a suspicious text messageclaiming to come from the agency. The message reads: “NationalCredit Union Administration Alert for (recipient's phone number).Contact 844-234-5445.”

“This is not a communication from NCUA. The agency does not seekpersonal information through the internet or on the telephone,” apress release from the agency stated.

The NCUA urged consumers to contact NCUA's Consumer AssistanceCenter at 1-800-755-1030 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Eastern forthose receiving one of these messages. NCUA also recommendedmembers contact their credit union, local law enforcement or theInternet Crime ComplaintCenter, a partnership between the Federal Bureau ofInvestigation and the National White Collar Crime Center.

NCUA operates an online FraudPrevention Center that offers information about avoiding fraudsand scams on its MyCreditUnion.govwebsite.

This is not the first time the NCUA was an online phishing fraudtarget. In March 2015, the regulator issued a warning about acampaign, in which consumers received emails from a site named theNational Credit Union website. The site appeared to originate inAustralia and claimed to offer services in the United States,Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Opportunistic cybercriminals are tapping into the wealth ofpersonal and behavioral data available online, or launchingspear-phishing attacks intending to trick recipients intotransferring money into bogus third-party accounts.

That was a major conclusion drawn from San Mateo, Calif.-basedsecurity provider Agari's Executive Brief: Top Phishing Attacks,which reviewed some of the past year's most newsworthy phishing attacks, lessons learned fromthem and available countermeasures.

Two recent examples of so-called CEO fraud involved UbiquitiNetworks' finance department, which transferred $46.7 million intoan overseas account held by external third parties; and, a Mattelfinance executive wired more than $3 million to the Bank of Wenzhouafter the supposed new CEO requested a vendor payment.

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