A local TV news station reported Monday that several members of the $1.3 billion South Carolina Federal Credit Union in North Charleston, S.C. had a “significant amount of money taken out of their accounts.”

One woman said $1,800 was stolen from her account from somewhere in France, while another woman said her entire account was wiped out, according to Live5News in Charleston, S.C.

The news report said based off customers' (members') information, dozens of accounts had seen unauthorized transactions. The report did not identify the members or directly quote them.

Meredith H. Siemens, executive director of public relations and communications at South Carolina FCU, told CU Times she could not confirm the details of the local news report, but did acknowledge some members experienced fraud through their debit cards.

Siemens said she was not sure on the specifics as to how the thieves gained access to member accounts.

“We don't have a final number on how many members were impacted,” she said.

In an email statement released to members on Monday, the credit union said the fraudulent debit card transactions occurred over the weekend.

“We would like to assure you that, based on today's data analysis, the security of member information was not compromised at South Carolina Federal Credit Union,” the statement read. “It is important – both to you and to the credit union – that members understand that South Carolina Federal has not been 'hacked.'”

The credit union also stated that South Carolina is now experiencing one of the highest rates of fraud of any state in the country. The credit union and Siemens did not cite the source of that information.

“Our location, combined with the increased urgency to use stolen information, due to the upcoming adoption of EMV chip cards, has sparked spikes in fraudulent activities,” South Carolina's FCU statement continued. “In most cases, the current fraud activity is not the result of something that occurred recently. Many of the incidents are linked to cards compromised in previous breaches (Target, Home Depot, K Mart, etc.). Fraudsters typically hold on to stolen card information until people have forgotten about it, and then use the stolen information to conduct fraudulent transactions.”

However, the South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs, which monitors fraudulent activities throughout the state, told CU Times it has not seen spikes in fraudulent activities so far this year.

“Reports made to our department's ID Theft Unit have not been out of the ordinary in comparison to previous years,”' Juliana Harris, a spokesperson for the South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs, said. “The most notable report we've been getting this year is in reference to tax return fraud.”

What's more, the Federal Trade Commission's Consumer Sentinel Report for 2014 shows that South Carolina ranked No. 20 for fraud reports and No. 30 in the nation for ID theft reports.

“While I think it would be advantageous to improve both these numbers, neither are inordinately high,” Harris said.

Instant Insights /

Thieves Hit South Carolina FCU Accounts

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