EECU equips our team with ongoing fraud prevention training so they can spot the warning signs of a scam early and protect the members who trust us as their financial institution.
Recently, that training helped a quick-thinking representative ask the right questions and prevent a member from losing $20,000 to a romance scam. When a longtime member in her late 70s came into a branch to withdraw $20,000 from her certificate, our representative noticed several red flags: an online relationship, a military deployment story, urgency, secrecy, and a request to send money to a third party whose name was handwritten on a small piece of paper.
Our representative gently shared her concerns with the member and explained how often these situations occur. Although our member insisted on moving forward with the check, we acted quickly. After issuing the check, our team immediately placed a stop payment and contacted the joint account holders, who confirmed the story did not add up. We learned the next day that the stop payment had worked and prevented the loss.
Our member and her children thanked our representative and branch manager profusely for alerting them to the situation. By taking the time to listen, ask questions, and act quickly, our representative protected our member and her family from losing $20,000. That is member focus in action at EECU.
