Widespread Scam Hits New Hampshire

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. - One week before the vishing attempt in Oregon, residents of New Hampshire began receiving telephone calls purportedly from Northeast CU on Aug. 13. Peter Kavalauskas, the credit union's CEO, said he received a call at his home at 8 p.m. on Aug. 13 from one of Northeast CU's directors. The director's daughter had received a call that night which she felt was very suspicious. Shortly thereafter, the director received the same scam call. Both he and his daughter live in Portsmouth.

"On the evening of Aug. 13, we got word out to our members," said Kavalauskas. "It was on television most of the day on Aug 14. We worked with the phone company to trace the source and shut it down on the morning of Aug. 15."

The automated notice told people their payments and transfer services had expired and ordered them to call an 866 number. If the person called the number, they were asked for their debit, credit or ATM card number, and then their PIN, supposedly to "reactivate" their accounts.

"It is very easy for someone to succumb to that sort of threat," said Kavalauskas. Other credit unions called Northeast CU because their members also were getting calls, he reported. "The scam was widespread throughout the state of New Hampshire."

"Thanks to good member education and prompt action by my staff, we only had two small losses," said Kavalauskas. "Two transactions did get through, but the combined total was less than $1,000. We had hundreds of calls from members and non-members. Apparently, someone was using an automatic dialer that dialed every number in a given town." (c) 2007 The Credit Union Journal and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.cujournal.com http://www.sourcemedia.com