Safeguarding Our Members Against Fraud is Key Focus for Westerra

An article by Westerra CEO Steve Schmidle was published in the recent issue of the Banking Business Network (BBN) digital magazine, a monthly publication geared towards those who work in the credit union and banking industries, on how Westerra balances the need to implement proactive fraud awareness with the modern age of banking. The full Banking Business Network article is available here.

In his article, Steve notes that several factors are creating a “perfect storm” for older adults to be prime targets for fraud. However, as scammers – or “bad actors” - are becoming more sophisticated with advanced tactics, persons of any age can inadvertently fall for scams and fraud attempts, especially as these bad actors are impersonating reputable institutions, spoofing numbers and intercepting member calls.

For example, a recent fraud alert Westerra circulated to members shares that bad actors are posing as Westerra Credit Union and texting members to verify a card transaction. When responding 'No' to indicate they do not authorize the transaction, the bad actor will then call the member and request their card number, PIN number, SSN, account number, User ID and/or password.

Westerra urges members who are targeted for this scam to not answer the phone. Instead, they should hang-up immediately. Members should also not call back using the phone number on their phone or caller ID as the number was likely “spoofed” to make it appear as if it was coming from Westerra and they will likely be calling back the bad actor. Instead, members should call the number found on the back of their card.

While this trend is alarming, Westerra has found by sharing preventive fraud awareness and alerts helps our members stay vigilant. Additional resources can be found on our Security page: https://www.westerracu.com/security