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GREENSBORO, N.C. – As many as a dozen credit unions may have fallen victim to a scheme that effectively cleansed credit records and enabled more than two dozen people with blemished credit histories to qualify for membership and for loans.
As much as $1.6 million of credit card, personal and auto loans were taken out on the scam, according to Greensboro Police Detective T.J. Lippa, who is heading the investigation for the Greater Triad Financial Crimes Task Force. "What happened was that, as this went on, the credit unions got so suspicious that they called me on everybody," said Lippa.
The credit unions themselves figured out the scheme and put the pieces together during their monthly BankWatch meetings, where local credit union and bank executives discuss ongoing scams, like check counterfeiting or identity thefts with area law enforcement representatives.
The borrowers all went through a fictitious credit counseling agency, called A-Plus Financial Counseling, which not only produced phony paychecks for the borrowers to establish employment, but then notified credit bureau Equifax of a fraud alert on their credit reports, which effectively wiped the legitimate reports with bad credit clean, according to Lippa. This prevented the credit unions from reviewing the real credit reports."They've taken a legitimate identity theft tool and turned it into a criminal enterprise," Lippa told The Credit Union Journal Friday.
"They all had blemished credit. Some of them were college students," Lippa said. "In most cases the people were unemployed."
The borrowers qualified for membership at the credit unions by falsely claiming to be family members of an eligible person, according to the Detective. "If I keep going back, a lot of these people either know each other or are related to each other," he said.
Among the credit unions hit are: Navy FCU, North Carolina State Employees CU, Community Choice CU, Carolina Poastal CU, Truliant FCU, Coastal FCU, Premier FCU and Marine FCU, Summit CU; Greensboro Municipal CU and Piedmont Advantage CU.
This scheme appeared to hit only credit unions. "It's a lot easier to get membership and they don't check on things as much as the banks do," said Lt. Lippa.
So far, the owner of A-Plus Credit and her partner have been charged, and as many as a dozen borrowers. Another dozen borrowers are expected to be charged, according to Lippa. As part of the scheme, the borrowers would kick back a portion of the loan proceeds to the partners.
