Recently, we’ve received a lot of calls and emails about receiving one of our cashier’s checks for payment of a new online job, for a purchase of an item being sold online,  or __________________ (fill in the blank with other reason). These calls and emails are coming from all over the country. The problem is the checks are counterfeits and depositing one of these will result in the person who deposited it being responsible for the funds.

These scams are so common now that the FTC has an entire website dedicated to the topic. If not our checks, it could be any of the over 10,000 other financial institutions in the US. The check is not really the point as it is just the tool used by the scammers to defraud unsuspecting individuals and with technology being what it is these days, the fraudulent checks are difficult to detect on look and feel alone.

Most of these scams could be avoided by listening to the little voice that tells us that something isn’t quite right. The old saying “if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is” applies in these situations. When was the last time you paid for an item you bought and wrote the check out for hundreds if not thousands more and asked that the seller then send you the difference via wire transfer or via an app?

We encourage our members and anyone receiving a questionable payment with one of our checks to contact us if they want to verify that a payment is legitimate. We want to help protect our members and the community at large from these scammers.

Post author: Jamieson Mackay, CCUFC

The opinions expressed on this page are those of the credit union’s Certified Credit Union Financial Counselors, staff members and other authors and may not reflect the views of the credit union. Information is for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide legal or financial advice. The views expressed are those of the author of each article.

Jamieson Mackay, The Importance of Naming Beneficiaries

My father-in-law passed away recently and my wife, as executor, was so grateful that he’d left clear instructions including a will, a list of accounts (with named beneficiaries), and plenty of documentation.  We most likely could have avoided the probate process (which costs around $2,500), except for two things: Selling the house and no named beneficiaries on a few accounts and investments. If we had sold the house when he moved into a nursing home and he had named beneficiaries on all of his accounts and investments, we might have been able to prevent going through probate to obtain the letter of testamentary needed to complete those tasks.

We learned that on a few of his accounts, including a couple of IRAs and bank accounts, that he’d named his daughters as beneficiaries. Since the daughters were equal beneficiaries on the IRAs, they simply must produce the death certificate to initiate the process transferring those funds to a newly created Inherited IRA (we’ll get into that in more detail in a separate post).

Can you guess what all of us have been doing since we learned this lesson? You guessed it, we’re updating our beneficiaries on all our accounts and investments to make life a little easier for our children and give them faster access to funds in case they are needed. We’ve already updated a few accounts, so it has been a worthwhile exercise. I would encourage you to do the same and update your beneficiaries, especially if you have had a change in your life like a new child, marriage, or any other life event that would change who you want to inherit your money.

We’ve made it easy to add beneficiaries to your membership at the credit union and it can be done all online. You can use the form below to add or remove beneficiaries.

Add or Remove Beneficiaries

Complete the following form to update your beneficiaries for your membership. Once your form has been submitted for review, we will send you forms to sign electronically through the email address provided. If you are adding multiple beneficiaries, please complete one form for each beneficiary.

The opinions expressed on this page are those of the credit union’s Certified Credit Union Financial Counselors, staff members and other authors and may not reflect the views of the credit union. Information is for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide legal or financial advice. The views expressed are those of the author of each article.

Click the info-graphic to view in new window.

Around the world, seniors are victimized by cybercrime and identity scams at higher rates than most other age groups. Each year, financial fraud and scams affect approximately 1 out of every 18 older adults.

As the Baby Boomer generation enters their retirement years, it’s important to warn seniors about the risk of identity theft and help them stay on guard against fraudulent scams.

Seniors make up 17% of the Canadian population today,[1] and by 2041, 26.5% of the UK population will be 65 or older.[2] By 2050, people aged 65 and older will represent 20% of the U.S. population.[3]

Why do seniors fall victim to identity theft at higher rates than other adults?

Criminals are drawn to seniors for a variety of reasons. Limitations in mobility may keep seniors at home more, creating a sense of loneliness and isolation from family and friends. Some may have memory or cognition difficulties that leave them more susceptible to manipulation. But mostly, identity thieves know that as a group, seniors have greater financial wealth than other generations, therefore the payoff for stealing seniors’ identities can be greater.

Nine common scams used to steal identity information and defraud seniors

Educate the seniors in your life about these common scams that identity thieves and fraudsters are using to uncover personal information:

1. Prize scams: Fraudsters contact the senior and say they have won a sweepstakes cash prize or lottery and need to make a payment to unlock the prize.
2. Technical support scams: A caller, claiming to be from a reputable technology company such as Microsoft or Apple, calls to tell the senior that something is very wrong with their computer. Claiming the computer has been infiltrated by hackers, the caller offers to help in exchange for a fee. People in the U.S. lost $55 million to this scam in 2018.[4]
3. Grandchild scam: The scammer calls a senior and then says something like “Hi Grandma, can you guess who this is?” When the senior guesses with the name of one of their grandchildren, the scammer uses that identity to request financial support for anything ranging from bail money to car repairs to overdue rent.[5]
4. Inheritance scam: Similar to the prize scams, someone calls pretending to be an attorney and informs the senior they’ve received an unexpected inheritance. Then they press them for personal information.
5. Medicare/NHS impersonation: One thing that all seniors have in common is their national health insurance plan. That gives identity thieves one key piece of information about a senior before doing any other research. By impersonating Medicare or NHS personnel, identity thieves get seniors to give out their personal information for “verification” purposes.
6. Bank official impersonation: This works very much the same as the Medicare/NHS scam, except the information being captured is bank account numbers in addition to personal information.
7. Tax scam: Tax documents contain a trove of personal information, and nearly everyone has to file them. There are two ways identity thieves approach tax scams—by telephone and email. On the phone, the identity thief poses as a tax official and demands payment. Phishing emails look like official communications from the taxing authority with the goal of obtaining personal information for identity theft and possibly stealing refund checks.[6]
8. Romance scams: Like any of us, seniors want to pursue love interests and new friendships, and many use online dating websites and social media. Seniors need to be aware that people do create fake online profiles in order to meet potential targets for fraud. Any love interest or new friend who asks for money should be blocked from further contact.[7]
9. Caregiver or familiar fraud: Sadly, the elderly often become victims of the very people charged with their care—family members or paid caregivers. It’s important that caregivers be trustworthy people with stable financial footing. Be wary if a caregiver tries to block the families access to a senior or hides bank statements or bills.

Help the seniors you care about watch out for these identity frauds and scams. Talk to them about the dangers and offer to review suspicious emails/mail or to help them look for unusual activity on bank statements and bills. In the event that a senior loved one has recently passed, maintain extra vigilance about the decedent’s credit report and identity in order to protect their surviving spouse and estate.

We have partnered with CyberScout to offer comprehensive identity management services.  If you detect suspicious activity or would like to proactively protect your identity, contact us at 281-487-9333 or sign up for FraudScout which is CyberScout’s proactive identity management service.

[1] Statistics Canada

[2] UK Office for National Statistics

[3] U.S. Census Bureau

[4] “The awful, fast-growing tech scams fleecing the elderly out of millions,” Fast Company, May 5, 2019.

[5] “Top 10 financial scams targeting seniors,” National Council on Aging.

[6] Internal Revenue Service

[7] Federal Trade Commission