LA GRANDE — Bob Kavanaugh, a vice president with Old West Federal Credit Union, La Grande, has simple advice to people concerned about the news that customers with accounts at financial institutions in Oregon, including credit unions, are being victimized by text scams that involve imposter messages — compose yourself and relax, he said.

According to an Oregon Public Broadcasting story, scammers are using a method called “smishing” to gain access to member accounts and have stolen thousands of dollars. Smishing utilizes persuasive messages to trick recipients into revealing sensitive information or downloading harmful content.

The good news is that few members of Old West have reported receiving suspicious texts from potential scammers, Kavanaugh said. The vice president though is encouraging members, and other people who have accounts with financial institutions, to always be careful when responding to texts.

Everyone should use a high degree of caution when they receive a text message from an unfamiliar number.

This requires restraint since the inclination of many people is to respond quickly to text messages, Kavanaugh said.

“Take a deep breath,” he said.

Still, it can be easy to fall into the trap of opening a text from scammers considering how adept they are at disguising them so they appear to be from legitimate businesses, such as Amazon, which people have accounts with. Kavanaugh said in most cases people opening fraudulent texts will almost always be presented with a link they will be asked to click on — which should be a red flag.

“Never follow the links,” he said.

This can be hard to do because the initial message of texts from fraudsters may seem legitimate. For example, one appearing to be from a financial institution a person does business with may say that it is time for them to change their password.

Other text scammers may say their company needs to confirm account information, a clever way to discover passwords.

“People who who are the victims of a scan are urged to come forward and get help from companies like Old West Federal Credit Union,” Kavanaugh said.

Victims should not feel embarrassed, because perpetrators of cyber crimes are very good at what they do.

“Scammers do this for a living,” Kavanaugh said, adding that Old West Federal Credit Union accounts are extremely secure because of the sophisticated computer coding system the credit union uses.

“It is heavily encrypted,” he said.

Kavanaugh said that this also applies to other credit unions, creating a strong legacy of security.

“I have never heard of a major security breach involving a credit union,” he said