JAY – Otis Federal Credit Union is warning customers about an e-mail scam Wednesday when patrons were asked to log into their accounts to receive an alert.

President Roland Poirier said the number of customers affected had not been tallied by late Wednesday afternoon, because staff had not had time since phones lit up early Wednesday morning with concerned customers.

The credit union attempted to notify customers Wednesday and a message is on the credit union’s Web site, he said.

The e-mail asked customers to follow a link to a Web site where they were asked for debit card account numbers, access codes, a 16-digit card number and the three-digit code on the back. With that information, a piece of plastic could be produced and accounts accessed, he said.

The e-mail also asks for MasterCard of Visa debit information, but the credit union does not offer MasterCard, he said. Customers choose a background picture and phrase of their own choice for their account sign-in to provide multi-factor authentication. If they don’t see this, then they should delete the message, he advised.

Customers who ignore or delete the e-mail or those who follow the link and then get suspicious and realize it’s bogus but do not offer their account numbers are OK.

Those who did share their information should contact the credit union immediately at 897-0900, he said. New cards are being issued for anyone who went to the link and gave any information.

The credit union never sends this type of e-mail, Poirier said. It does have a program called eAlerts that customers can voluntarily join and receive e-mails with information about when their paycheck has been deposited or when their checking account reaches a certain level.

Ironically, the phishing scam is using a similar name, Alert, he said.

In the field of computer security, phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication, usually e-mail. The term phishing is a variant of fishing and alludes to baits used to “catch” financial information and passwords.

Police have not been involved at this point but a data security firm is working on the computer issues, he said.