AUSTIN -
Starting in December CUs began identifying suspected attempts to wire transfer money from member owned HELOC accounts, CUISPA reported.
The perpetrators make the wire requests by phone after gathering extensive personal information for verification purposes, including family member names, account information, and other vital data. They then request phone line forwarding from the phone company to circumvent “call-back” procedures, the group said, noting that average attempts on the transfers range between $70,000 and $900,000.
“We began receiving notification of this scam from members on New Year’s Eve,” says Kelly Dowell, CUISPA executive director. “At this point the FBI and Secret Service have been notified and have open cases.”
CUISPA said it suspects some of the information is being gathered from public land records that include details about HELOC accounts and signature samples. The fraudsters make multiple calls to the institution asking for basic information in order to determine what authentication procedures it has in place.
Typically the fraudster is ordering a credit report on the account holder within 24 hours of attempting the transfer. The requests are faxed with the proper signature or called in to the contact center, and in some occurrences even the fax header uses the account holders actual home phone number.”
CUISPA suggested these tactics to stymie these scams:
* Notify all member-facing employees of this scam and tell them to be cautious of giving out account specific information that would not be public.
* Check for recent changes to phone number(s) and address changes for any HELOC.
* Use your CU security verification question procedures.
* Be aware of calls from members who do not perform many transactions.
* Listen for pauses in conversations and red flag calls where the person appears to be looking for verification answers.
Requests for address or phone number changes should be considered suspect.
For info: www.cuispa.org
