The state's largest credit union said the effort was the first targeting its 63,000 members. The credit union has notified the Internet Crime Complaint Center and said it was working to get a Web site linked to the fake message taken down.

The e-mail tells people their account information may have been obtained by outside parties and asks them to click on a link that takes them to a secure site where they can reactive their account.

"We regret to inform you that we had to lock your account access because we have reasons to believe that it may have been compromised by outside parties," the e-mail reads. "In order to protect your sensitive information, we temporarily suspended your account access."

Pauwilo Look, credit union spokeswoman, said it has previously warned members that it doesn't send such messages and that there were several clues on the e-mail that it was fake, including the sender's address and the wrong address for the credit union's Internet site.

At least two of the messages carried incorrect dates and mentioned membership in the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which provides deposit insurance for banks. The Hawaii State Federal Credit Union's deposit insurance is provided through the National Credit Union Administration.

Web thieves who send bogus e-mails are getting more sophisticated in targeting consumers of financial institutions. In the past two years have started started sending so-called phishing e-mails focusing on local banks, including American Savings Bank, Bank of Hawaii and First Hawaiian Bank.