WARREN, Ohio – Americans lost more than $12 billion to fraud in 2024, a 25% increase from 2023.
Donna Luzier, fraud manager, Bank Secrecy Act officer for 717 Credit Union, cited those statistics from the Federal Trade Commission to start a roundtable discussion that included leadership from local credit unions and law enforcement.
The roundtable was hosted by 717 Credit Union on Friday at its main office and included representatives from the Associated School Employees Credit Union, Cardinal Credit Union, Canton School Employees Federal Credit Union, Unity Catholic Credit Union and law enforcement members from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boardman Police Department, Howland Police Department and Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office.
Participants shared some of the things they personally have seen and talked about ways to help credit union members avoid and recognize fraudulent activity.
“Fraud is just really knocking on almost every door, and we’re seeing new stuff all the time,” said Mike Kurish, CEO of the ASECU. “And I think one of the things we have realized is that the actors that we are trying to defend ourselves from are well educated, trained individuals who approach scamming individuals as a full-time job.”
Kurish said people who are scammed sometimes come into the credit union to ask to withdraw their money and are being coached by someone on their cellphone and told how to respond.
Kelly Reddy, business development manager from the Unity Catholic Federal Credit Union, said they see people who feel an urgent pressure to follow the scammer’s directions. Reddy said staff members are trained to provide a UCFCU member safety brochure whenever a request seems suspicious, making conversations about fraud easier.
Mario Duvnjak, chief operation officer at Cardinal Credit Union, said they see a lot of ATM fraud and people attempting to get passcodes from their members. A major upgrade to the online banking platform requires multifactor authentication and warnings against giving out a personal code.
Detective Greg Stepuk of the Boardman Police Department is actively investigating fraud in the local area, including a recently reported mail theft involving checks mailed to Capital One and Discovery from the Boardman Post Office, which he believes is actually happening after the mail leaves the local area for sorting. Other common scams he sees are people taking out money to pay for home improvement and people urged to put money onto gift cards.
Brittany Socie, assistant fraud manager at 717 Credit Union, said it is difficult when members are taking money out to purchase gift cards or to put into bitcoin machines, or when they are sending money by Venmo or Cash App, because the financial institution cannot get that money back for them.
Patrick Koeth, FBI supervisory special agent, said credit unions and local law enforcement should report fraud to the FBI. In about 70% of cases, the FBI can trace cryptocurrency transactions and locate the money. Both Koeth and Stepuk said time is critical in investigating these crimes.
The roundtable participants also talked about how important education is and how reluctant people who have been scammed are to share their story.
Reddy said her husband accidentally clicked on a help button link and someone took over control of his phone. She had set up alerts on their accounts and suddenly realized what had happened. After she shared the story with other family members, she learned they, too, had lost money to scammers.
“I think they feel stupid that they got taken advantage of, but nobody should feel that way,” Reddy said. “They should really want to share their story, because that’s the only way that all the stuff we share with them makes sense, because it happened to somebody they know.”
Luzier said she wishes public service announcements about fraud bombarded people during every episode of “Jeopardy,” “Wheel of Fortune” and soap operas. She said people need to be reminded not to send gift cards to anyone they don’t know, not to transfer their money into crypto and to realize their financial institution is not going to enlist their help to try to catch someone bad working there – all scams that are common.
Stefanie McCrae of the CSE Federal Credit Union said widows and the lonely are particularly vulnerable to scams.
But the panel also noted scams are not limited to the elderly or recently widowed. Young adults looking for jobs or trying to get ahead financially can fall prey to offers on social media, according to Howland Detective Nico Brancaccio.
“We’ve also seen a rise in businesses that were actually being targeted,” Brancaccio said. “We had two or three in a week where someone would call and say they were with corporate and needed help to withdraw the money from the cash register.”
The young employee follows orders, takes the money from the register and deposits it into crypto machines or gift cards.
Duvnjak said Cardinal Credit Union does some financial education for high school students, partnering with five local schools with a curriculum that includes basics such as opening accounts and transferring money, as well as topics such as ID theft, scams and crypto currencies.
The roundtable participants also talked about some AI-related scams they are hearing about, including sending a doctored photo showing a grandchild in custody, voices being spoofed and calls that look like they are from a known number.
“Let it go to voicemail,” Socie said. “If it’s important, they’ll leave a voicemail and you call them back.”
She also recommends that if something feels uncomfortable or suspicious, hang up and call the business, including a financial institution, to verify it’s legitimate.
“If we are legitimately calling you, we are not going to be upset if you hang up and call us back again,” Socie said.
And even as things go high-tech in combating wire transactions, Koeth said the FBI sees scammers going back to low-tech, sending a person to pick up the cash, getting the victim to place the money into a Bitcoin machine and even impersonating local law enforcement. He suggests offering to meet the person at the police station. Often, they will hang up and not show up.
One of the toughest conversations can be with someone who has been victimized by a sweetheart scam, said Tiffany Tutoki, a BSA Fraud and Risk Specialist with 717 Credit Union, who also served as the moderator of the roundtable.
“You’re not only telling them this money isn’t coming back, but this person that you’ve been talking to for two years doesn’t exist.”
Detective Wayne Mackey with the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office said he once knew a woman who gave away $350,000 to a man claiming to live on an oil well near Europe. He said he wishes there was a way law enforcement could convince financial institutions to put a hold on an account or make it harder for people to pull out their money.
“The biggest problem we all run into is that the individuals we deal with on things like that think that we’re trying to be nosy and get into their business,” said Andrew Nemergut, vice president of operations at ASECU. “We’re just simply trying to protect them.”
Matt Keyes, director of communications and marketing for the Ohio Credit Union League, said there are federal and state bills in the works. The federal bill would create a task force to investigate fraud. The state legislation would put a hold on any transaction a financial institution sees as possibly fraudulent so that a trusted loved one also on the account could be contacted to see if they are aware of the transaction before it goes through.
“We want to do our due diligence before you lose any of your hard-earned money because credit unions are on the front lines of this every day, seeing their members and helping them make the most of their financial situation,” Keyes said.
Pictured at top: Members of local credit unions and law enforcement gathered at 717 Credit Union’s main office Friday to discuss fraud and how they can help people in the local community avoid it.