FSCC awards CUs for stopping over $1.1M in fraud

Financial Service Centers Cooperative (FSCC) announced that it gave awards to 12 credit unions for stopping more than $1.1 million in fraud activity during 2009. The credit unions garnered about 50 Fraud Buster Awards. The awards were presented to credit unions on a quarterly basis during 2009.

Award recipients included credit unions that participate in the FSCC Shared Branching Network. The recipients of the Fraud Buster Awards were recognized for protecting their credit unions, their members, and members of other credit unions from fraud.

FSCC maintains an Operations Advisory Committee comprising of stockholder credit unions. The committee reviews activity and looks at ways to prevent and detect fraud through rule changes, training, products and services. In the nine years the awards have been presented, credit unions have stopped more than $7.5 million from fraudulent activities. FSCC has presented more than 280 awards.

Financial institutions in the U.S. lose about $12 billion a year in check fraud, and the retail industry loses a similar amount resulting in losses of $24 billion as a result of check fraud. The Federal Trade Commission also reports that financial institutions and businesses lose more than $48 billion annually from fraudulent activities, according to statistics FSCC cited from U.S. News and World Report.