lupi
Lifer
Fraudulent texts cost NC bank customers at least $100,000
CURRITUCK COUNTY -- Gateway Bank says that a new text scheme has already siphoned more than $100,000 from their customers' accounts.
North Carolina attorney general Roy Cooper says he's trying to track down who sent out the mass text.
The texts say, GATEWAY BANK ALERT: Your CARD starting with 4138** has been DEACTIVATED.
Fairen Torrey lives in Knott's Island, NC and said she called the number because she thought it was real.
She followed the prompts and it asked her for her full debit card number, the expiration date and pin.
The next morning she realized her bank account was wiped out.
"They left me $3 in my bank account," said Torrey adding, "I'm smarter than that. Just the fact that it was so detailed that I was a gateway customer, it had the first four digits and that it was an automated system."
She also said she got bad feeling when she got the same text message that her account was deactivated about 20 minutes after she received the first one. Then her little sister who doesn't even have a bank account received the same message.
"I knew something was really wrong when I knew my little sister who has actually has cerebral palsy received the same text message."
Dare County Sheriff's investigators think that Verizon Wireless customers in the Elizabeth City area were targeted. They received reports that a mass text went out to Verizon Wireless customers, not necessarily Gateway Bank customers.
"We received numerous calls from citizens who do not bank at Gateway Bank, but everyone is a Verizon Wireless Customer," according to a Dare County Sheriff's office press release.
Attorney general Cooper's office advises debit card holders who have responded to the texts to contact Gateway Bank immediately at 1-800-523-4175 to block their cards.
Gateway Bank has branches throughout North Carolina, including in Raleigh, Cary, Wilmington, Plymouth, Kitty Hawk and Elizabeth City
CURRITUCK COUNTY -- Gateway Bank says that a new text scheme has already siphoned more than $100,000 from their customers' accounts.
North Carolina attorney general Roy Cooper says he's trying to track down who sent out the mass text.
The texts say, GATEWAY BANK ALERT: Your CARD starting with 4138** has been DEACTIVATED.
Fairen Torrey lives in Knott's Island, NC and said she called the number because she thought it was real.
She followed the prompts and it asked her for her full debit card number, the expiration date and pin.
The next morning she realized her bank account was wiped out.
"They left me $3 in my bank account," said Torrey adding, "I'm smarter than that. Just the fact that it was so detailed that I was a gateway customer, it had the first four digits and that it was an automated system."
She also said she got bad feeling when she got the same text message that her account was deactivated about 20 minutes after she received the first one. Then her little sister who doesn't even have a bank account received the same message.
"I knew something was really wrong when I knew my little sister who has actually has cerebral palsy received the same text message."
Dare County Sheriff's investigators think that Verizon Wireless customers in the Elizabeth City area were targeted. They received reports that a mass text went out to Verizon Wireless customers, not necessarily Gateway Bank customers.
"We received numerous calls from citizens who do not bank at Gateway Bank, but everyone is a Verizon Wireless Customer," according to a Dare County Sheriff's office press release.
Attorney general Cooper's office advises debit card holders who have responded to the texts to contact Gateway Bank immediately at 1-800-523-4175 to block their cards.
Gateway Bank has branches throughout North Carolina, including in Raleigh, Cary, Wilmington, Plymouth, Kitty Hawk and Elizabeth City
