SPRING TOWNSHIP, Pa.- A local credit union is warning about a disturbing trend it’s seeing more and more.
Officials say account takeover scams are happening with increasing frequency, and they want to help people stay safe.
“The relentless pressure that’s coming from these scammers to, ‘do this now, immediately, it has to be done,’ forces individuals to not think,” says Kevin Unger, chief risk officer at Discovery Federal Credit Union in Spring Township.
More and more, Unger says he’s seeing people fall prey to account takeover scams, which involve what he calls, a ‘money mule,’ or someone who opens a legitimate account at the request of a scammer. In these cases, the scammer has already compromised another account at that financial institution.
“It’s [across] all financial institutions, banks, credit unions,” says Unger.
“They’re coming in and opening an account with good ID and are establishing this account to accept the funds from the compromised account,” he says. “Once that money is moved in there, those individuals now have access to get the money out rather quickly.”
Victims can lose anywhere from thousands of dollars to tens of thousands of dollars, even their lifesavings in some circumstances.
Unger says once that money is gone, it’s gone.
“Unfortunately, we have no way to get it back because they’re using technologies that hide that money,” he says.
He emphasizes it’s very Important to pay attention to red flags.
“[Don’t give] up your credentials, [don’t give] up the multi-factor authentication codes,” he says. “If you think it’s your institution calling, hang up, call them.”
Also, never act under pressure, Unger says.
He says Discovery Federal Credit Union denies transactions it suspects are scams. He just wants the public to be aware and cautious.
“It’s unfortunate, but we have a form that we’ll have individuals sign called a fraud awareness form [for when] we’ve told you multiple times that we feel you’re involved in a scam,” he says.
“We want to make sure that if you indeed follow with this, that you’re not coming back to the credit union and saying, ‘Why didn’t you help me stop this?” says Unger.
When in doubt, come in and talk to someone at your financial institution in person before sending anyone money or giving any personal or confidential information away.
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