COLUMBIA, S.C. A federal court here issued an order granting AllSouth FCU expedited discovery to serve subpoenas on third party Internet service providers and telephone companies in order to learn the identity of a group of fraudsters targeting the credit union and its members in phishing attacks.
The order by the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina will allow the credit union to issue subpoenas on people who are not part of the phishing scam in order to compel them to produce documents and material or to submit to an inspection.
The request was made in a civil suit citing “John Does” or “Jane Does” who convinced at least 125 AllSouth members to give them personal account information, which was used to access their funds. Efforts to discover the identities of the perpetrators have so far been unsuccessful, said the credit union, which hopes legal discovery tools available in a civil lawsuit will help it unmask the fraudsters. The expedited discovery order is unusual because the court typically waits until a pretrial conference before deciding whether to issue subpoenas.
The goal of the suit is to thwart an expanding form of Internet fraud aimed at credit union and bank account holders who have received text messages purporting to be from their credit union or bank and advising them to call a phone number to unblock an account. Once calling the number, people are asked to enter their debit or credit card numbers and other personal information such as a Social Security number. The personal information may then be used by the perpetrators to access the members’ accounts.
In one April 7 message purporting to be from AllSouth and labeled “Alert,” the member was told his/her account access was limited and required a call to a particular phone number to remove the restrictions. AllSouth members received varying messages with the same aim. When calling the number the members were greeted with a verbal message that said “Welcome to AllSouth Federal Credit Union” and asked to key in personal account information. In some cases, the information was used to transfer funds out of a member’s account. At least 125 AllSouth members have revealed their personal information under the scam, according to the suit.
The suit charges the unknown phishers with infringement of the $650-million credit union’s trademark and of violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, known as RICO. The credit union is asking the court to order an immediate injunction against the scammers and to award it treble damages.
