Helping a Member Stop a $12,000 Fraud Attempt

Fraud attempts happen every minute of every day. A member of CCFCU came in to see one of our employees last week due to a fraudster calling the member the night before from our 207-878-3441 number. The fraudster stated he was calling on behalf of Cumberland County FCU’s fraud department and needed to go over some transactions with the member. The fraudster proceeded to tell the member they had charges from Target in Windham, ME as well as some other online charges. To prevent this from posting, the fraudster needed to gain access to the member’s account online. The member gave the fraudster access to the member’s account online.

The member then paused for a moment and said there wasn’t a Target in Windham, ME. Also, the member didn’t believe he was calling from CCFCU and told him they were going to contact the CU to verify him. At this point, the fraudster got upset and hung up on the member. The member realized that they shouldn’t have provided the information, but they were tired and the fraudster was good at moving things along quickly. Just taking a moment to pause and question what was being asked helped the member realize they were being scammed.

The fraudster transferred a total of $12,100 from the Member’s credit card into the member’s checking account and proceeded to set up person to person (P2P) payments to go out the following day. One of our Service Specialists froze the member’s accounts and asked them to come in to one of the branches as soon as possible. We were able to act quickly and reset the member’s credentials, stop the payments and disable the necessary services to prevent any further attempts by the fraudster. We saved the member $12,100 on just this one attempt.

Sadly, fraudsters are very good at what they do and we have to work very hard to combat fraud attempts. We do this in a variety of ways – by keeping members and staff informed of the latest scams, such as this one; making sure we have the highest security for our products and services, and asking the right questions when a transaction doesn’t look right. All of these things will help us to prevent fraud in the future.

If something doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t. Give us a call at 207-878-3441, we’re here to help! Better to be safe than sorry.

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