A Connecticut woman has lost over $7,000 after scammers spoofed her credit union’s real phone number and talked her into sending her savings through Apple Cash.

The 45-year-old Windsor resident, who asked not to be named, says the caller claimed to work in the fraud department at 360 Federal Credit Union, reports NBC Connecticut.

She says her caller ID showed the credit union’s name, and the caller told her that her banking information had been compromised and her accounts needed to be secured.

Because her credit union is small, she says the fact that he knew where she banked made him seem like someone trying to help.

The report says that over a weekend in August, she sent more than $7,000 through Apple Cash to an unknown account, believing she was following her credit union’s instructions.

A fraud warning appeared while she was making the payment, but she says the caller told her the alert was a good sign.

“He goes, ‘Good, good. That’s what we want to see. We’re locking everything down.'”

By the following Monday, her account balance had gone negative.

Says the woman,

“All of a sudden it’s just like, whoa, where’s my money?… This person was very calculated. This definitely was not their first time at all.”

360 Federal Credit Union says it has found no sign that the transaction came from a breach of its systems.

She reached out to Apple and Green Dot Bank, which provides Apple Cash services, but has not been able to recover the money.

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The post Scammers Spoof Financial Institution’s Real Phone Number, Drain $7,000+ From Connecticut Woman’s Account Through Apple Cash: Report appeared first on The Daily Hodl.

A Wisconsin school district has lost hundreds of thousands of dollars to a bank impersonation scam.

Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) initially lost $450,000 but has recovered $255,000 and is working to get back the remaining $195,000, reports FOX6 Milwaukee.

The district says it learned it was the victim of bank impersonation fraud and notified authorities on Monday.

MPS has not released details on how or when the fraud happened.

Says MPS Superintendent Brenda Cassellius,

“This is a sobering reminder of the sophisticated financial scams that occur every day across the country. We are taking swift and immediate action to strengthen our internal procedures to prevent this from happening…

We also are working with our partners at US Bank to recover the remainder of the funds.”

The district says it is putting short-term and long-term controls in place to protect its finances, but it has not said what those controls include.

Along with the criminal investigation, MPS is running its own internal probe.

Deputy chief financial officer Jennifer Buros will serve as acting chief financial officer, with help from Charles Burbridge of the Council of the Great City Schools.

The $450,000 loss is less than one-tenth of one percent of the $1.6 billion budget the Milwaukee Board of School Directors approved in May for the 2026-27 school year.

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The post Wisconsin School District Loses $450,000 to Bank Impersonation Scam appeared first on The Daily Hodl.

Federal prosecutors have secured a guilty plea from a Washington resident accused of running a years-long romance scam that drained over $333,000 from a Portland victim.

Rithy Ham, 45, of Vancouver, Washington, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering, says the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon.

The scheme ran from September 2020 through May 2024 and relied on invented identities of two women who supposedly needed cash for daily bills, nursing school costs and escape from sex trafficking.

“Believing the women were real and in danger, the victim sent money on multiple occasions.”

The victim sent repeated payments after receiving messages from both Ham and the fabricated profiles.

One transfer of $36,872.35 occurred in November 2022, and another $20,922 came from a retirement account in March 2023.

Ham and his wife controlled the accounts that received the funds, and part of the proceeds paid for an $18,500 check to his wife.

“In total, Ham stole $333,249.52 from the victim, much of it from the victim’s retirement savings.”

Under the plea deal, Ham must repay the full amount and faces up to 20 years in prison on the wire fraud charge and up to 10 years on the money laundering count.

The FBI conducted the investigation.

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