Every day, PSCU's technology and risk management team works to successfully detect and prevent credit card fraud.
But recently, that technology and team also caught one of its own employees, Reynaldo Colon, a former PSCU credit card fraud investigator. He was arrested Monday for stealing customers' credit card account numbers to pay for fast food meals.
After the fraud was detected and reported to police by the St. Petersburg, Fla.-based CUSO, an investigation found that Colon, 26, of Apolo Beach, Fla., allegedly stole 21 credit card accounts and used them to make about 100 fraudulent transactions, mostly at fast food restaurants, Rick Shaw, a spokesperson for the St. Petersburg Police Department, said.
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Shaw said police typically see fraudulent credit card transactions for jewelry, trips and other big-ticket items, not fast food purchases.
Police said Colon took calls from customers who reported suspicious transactions on their credit card bills. Colon allegedly wrote down those credit card account numbers, keyed them into his cell phone and made purchases with his phone.
According to police, Colon was hired by PSCU in June 2014, and he allegedly began his fraud during the fall of 2014.
The fraudulent transactions amounted to less than $8,000, according to PSCU.
"PSCU worked with its credit union member-owners to ensure that their cardholders were protected and made whole," PSCU Vice President of Corporate Communications Merry Pateuk said. "PSCU's sophisticated internal security fraud detection measures worked as designed to protect against aberrant behavior. We were able to quickly identify an issue before it escalated and turned it over to law enforcement."
Pateuk said it is in the best interest of businesses in the financial services industry and PSCU's owners and members to press charges in these types of incidences in order to limit the accused person's re-employment in the financial services industry.
PSCU said it is the leader in payment card fraud detection and prevention with a fraud loss-to-sales ratio of $0.08 per $100 versus the payment card industry average of $0.14 per $100. In February, PSCU reported that its risk management team, analytics tools and processes prevented nearly $190 million in fraudulent transactions that were declined at the point of sale over a 13-month span.
Although Colon was fired by PSCU in November 2015, Saint Petersburg police reported that Colon got a new job in Chase Bank's call center in Tampa, Fla. Police reported Colon's arrest to Chase Bank, Shaw said.
Colon is free on a $10,000 bond. Within three weeks, he is expected to be charged with fraudulent use of credit cards, police said.
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Peter Strozniak
Credit Union Times reporter covering credit union operations, fraud, M&As, leagues, business continuity, and breaking news.
