Introducing Agent O.T.T.O - The Newest Member of OURCU's Fraud Fighters.

Special Agent O.T.T.O. here!

As you may have noticed I had the honor of becoming the newest member of OURCU’s Fraud Fighters. The objective? To fight fraud one member at a time, thus Mission: Tell Their Story was born. This month’s debriefing focuses on a scam that is quickly rising in popularity. What is it you ask? Loan fraud…

With events that are happening all around use, we understand that now more than ever people are seeking financial relief, often times in the form of a loan. Unfortunately the scammers are aware of this too, which is why today’s story focuses on Elijah.

Elijah actually recently joined the OURCU family as one of our newest members thanks to a staff member that made it their mission to be the difference. Elijah having just recently moved to Washington from out of state, had some unforeseen circumstances finding themselves in a dire situation, needing funds fast. You see Elijah had been offered an exciting opportunity for a promotion, it would require them to move to Washington, so he packed up and embarked on this exciting new journey for him and his family.

The excitement turned to panic as their planned living situation fell through, knowing their payday was still a ways off they came up with a plan. Elijah would apply for a small short term loan, get an apartment and then be able to have some time to figure out a long term solution. Unfortunately for Elijah, what they thought was a legitimate approval for a loan turned out to be a fraudulent website in which they were sent a check in the mail. The member brought the check into one of our branch locations to with the intent cashing the check.

However when Elijah handed the check over to one of our staff, it was immediately identified as a fraudulent check. Staff empathetically explained this to and informed him that we would not be able to cash it.

What little confidence Elijah had seemed to fly out the window. Luckily staff noticed that something was off with the member and proceeded to ask questions. Elijah proceeded to tell the employee assisting them what happened. Confident that we could help, staff coordinated to get him over to a loan officer who after hearing what the member needed was able to get them a short term “Summer Bucks” loan, and then went the extra mile after the member completed their loan application to assist them in contacting the Credit Bureaus to add restrictions to the member’s SSN to prevent potential fraud in the future (due to member providing personal information for what they believed to be a legitimate loan application). Additionally, they set up a new account and assisted the member in getting all their direct deposit information updated to ensure that Elijah would get his paychecks without delay!

Talk about a roller coaster of events! What started as an exciting new opportunity almost turned into a catastrophic event. However the determination by staff to go the extra mile for Elijah turned out to be the difference in the outcome. And we couldn’t be more grateful that we had the opportunity to serve one of our newest community members 😊.

This is Agent O.T.T.O. signing off! We here at OURCU want to wish you all a wonderful 4th of July as we celebrate the 250th anniversary of our nation! And as always…. 𝗥𝗘𝗠𝗘𝗠𝗕𝗘𝗥! 𝗪𝗛𝗘𝗡 𝗜𝗡 𝗗𝗢𝗨𝗕𝗧 𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗖𝗛 𝗢𝗨𝗧!