Members of a local credit union were recently defrauded by a scammer involving Facebook. The suspect used the popular social media site to trick five credit union members into providing personal account information that was then used to defraud those members of almost $60,000.
The suspect allegedly became friends with the members through Facebook and subsequently offered them a quick way to make money by accepting checks into the affected members’ accounts who gave the suspect their personal login information, passwords, and answers to authenticating challenge questions.
The suspect deposited checks into the members’ accounts through mobile deposit over several days and then directed the members to withdraw the money minus a 10% profit and deposit the funds into an account at another financial institution. The checks were later found to be fraudulent which resulted in losses in the members’ accounts.
We recommend never disclosing personal account information on social media or to strangers.