North Florida credit unions said Wednesday they are helping the U.S. Secret Service and police in Jacksonville crack down on an ATM fraud, which has run up$300,000 in CU losses over an 18-month period.
At least 15 gang members-who took part in acquiring stolen cards and depositing bad checks into ATMs to later make withdrawals or purchases before the checks were returned-were arrested.
"We now know that this is part of a national crime syndicate scheme, and we are at least fortunate our fraud team helped detect the transactions," said Terry West, president/CEO of the $3.5 billion Vystar CU, one of the allegedly victimized CUs. He said discussions have begun with the CU's insurer "so we can make the claims."
West said it is his understanding the ATM crimes in Jacksonville, which also hit Community First, are similar "to what happened to Navy Federal out in San Diego" recently.
West said because of Reg CC this is not an easy problem to handle since the CU shies from putting a hold on ATM check deposits until they clear. "We want the member to have full access," said West.
