How credit unions are stopping scams before members lose a dime
A member of a Cleveland-area credit union walked in planning to withdraw $15,000 in cash. Before the money left her account, a teller handed her a short questionnaire and asked a few plain questions about where the cash was going. She paused, thought it through, and told the teller she was not going through with it that day. What looked like a routine withdrawal was very likely a scam in progress, and a brief pause stopped it.
That moment captures something credit unions are working to make ordinary. As member-owned cooperatives, credit unions do well only when their members do, and a growing number are teaming up with local agencies, law enforcement, and news media to try to catch fraud before it drains an account. Two efforts, one in Ohio and one in Montana, show how the idea works in practice.
A question that buys time
The credit union in that story is Unity Catholic Federal Credit Union, which serves the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland from offices in Parma, Ohio. Its tellers reach for a half-sheet questionnaire whenever a member tries to withdraw $5,000 or more in cash, asking direct questions such as whether the money is bound for a cryptocurrency machine. The credit union has used its own version since 2024, and that tool became the model for a new teller-based fraud prevention program that the Cuyahoga County Scam Squad is preparing to test with area banks and credit unions.
Brian Kiggins, the credit union's human resources and compliance manager, said the point is to create a moment of reflection, not suspicion. He said withdrawals large enough to trigger the questionnaire come up three to four times a month at his branch alone. The last thing anyone wants, he said in a Cleveland 19 broadcast, is to watch a member come in devastated after their money is gone. "All we have to do is take a pause and stop that." Built with input from psychologists and crisis intervention specialists, the questionnaire also lets tellers stall a suspicious withdrawal, and a research team will study the results to refine the questions. The county plans to begin the test in late summer or early fall.
Why the pause matters
The stakes are high. In 2024, scammers stole at least $3.4 million from Cuyahoga County residents, nearly three times the amount the year before, and the average reported loss climbed from $11,228 to $31,844 in a single year. Fraudsters often prepare the people they target to distrust the very staff who could help. Sheryl Harris, director of the county's Department of Consumer Affairs, told Cleveland 19 that scammers coach people to believe "someone at the bank is involved" in their problem, which is exactly what makes a calm teller's question so valuable when it lands.
A different route to the same goal
More than 1,600 miles away, Clearwater Credit Union in Missoula, Montana, takes a preventive approach built on public education. In partnership with NBC Montana, its staff and local law enforcement appear in a recurring segment called Spot the Scam, which walks viewers through a rotating slate of threats, from imposter and phone scams to cryptocurrency, romance, tax, and AI voice-cloning schemes. The aim is to help people spot a red flag long before they reach a teller window. Clearwater has also made fraud prevention an executive priority, recently establishing its first senior leadership role focused specifically on payments and fraud prevention.
The reasoning mirrors the Ohio program. In a segment on cybersecurity scams, Kyle Rholl, Clearwater's senior vice president of information technology, said staff are trained to notice when "someone starts taking out large amounts of money when they normally don't," and to help members learn those warning signs for themselves.
The credit union difference
Different tactics, same conviction. Whether the tool is a question at the counter or a segment on the morning news, both credit unions are extending their protection beyond their own members to the wider community, working alongside government, law enforcement, and local media.
For members, the takeaway is straightforward. A trusted institution that knows your habits and that is willing to slow down a transaction that does not look right is among the strongest defenses against fraud. If a call, text, or online message pushes you to move money quickly, pause and verify through a person or number you already trust. That pause, as one Cleveland-area member learned, can be worth $15,000.
