When a woman strode into Cheyenne Bank on Monday and opened an account, no one thought twice.
But red flags began to wave and bank employees thwarted the largest case of alleged check fraud ever experienced at Waihi Federal Credit Union in Cheyenne, bank leaders told Cowboy State Daily Thursday. .
Pamela Kubesh, a 55-year-old Wisconsin woman, is currently facing federal charges of defrauding the U.S. government based on evidence she tried to deposit nearly $1 million in U.S. Treasury checks in someone else’s name. .
Andrea Valois, director of retail for Waihai, told the Cowboy State Daily that the nearly $1 million worth of check fraud by Monday was unprecedented for the company.
“This is crazy,” she said, adding that the credit union or other banking institution wasn’t supposed to cash it out, but Kvesh probably had it deposited into the account and then funneled it to another cash application or teller. He added that he thought he might have tried to do so. .
washed
Kubesh reportedly entered the bank on Monday afternoon wearing a red shirt and black coat and began opening an account in the name of a Los Angeles, California resident with the initials NJR.
At first everything went smoothly. Kubesh said he traveled to Wyoming to follow his job and presented his California driver’s license.
But when the member services advisor assisting her asked her for her Social Security number, the new customer balked, Valois said.
“She had to see a document showing her social security number,” she said. “She didn’t know it out of her head, which is unusual.”
Social Security numbers were issued in 2011, which also caught the attention of bankers, Valois added.
Once the new account was opened, the woman presented “this very large treasury check.”
And the check was real – sort of.
A federal affidavit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming says it is from the U.S. Treasury and owes NJR $985,020.
Treasury Special Agent Bradley Peters later confirmed that while investigating the case, the Treasury Department issued that amount and the check to that person. However, one of the lines detailing recipient information was reportedly deleted.
That’s because it has been “washed,” Valois says.
“The check itself looked as if it had been wet before. That was also kind of weird,” she said, adding that some check thieves go through a cleaning procedure where they wet the check to remove information.
The woman successfully deposited the check.
However, due to the uncertainty of the situation, WyHy representatives extended the normal 30-hour hold on cashing out new accounts and held the new account for nine business days.
“Heebie Geebies”
A short time later, the woman returned to the bank, but this time she brought a man with her to call her nephew to have him added to his account, Valois said.
Valois said her “nephew” also had trouble providing his social security number. Although the date on his driver’s license claimed to be several years old, it felt brand new to the advisor who looked it up.
Something wasn’t right.
The female employee who helped Kubesh and the male employee who helped his nephew went to call the branch manager.
“I think they had little hairs on their arms,” Valois said.
The bankers contacted Peters and offered to look into the situation. They also checked a shared bank database and were told that Kubesh (who they did not know was her real name) had reportedly attempted to open an account at another Cheyenne Credit Union shortly before coming to Waihai. I found out that there is.
meanwhile …
Meanwhile, Kubesh entered the bank for the third time again with his nephew by his side.
Balois said Kubesh wanted to know why his online bank account wasn’t working.
A bank employee called the police. As Cheyenne police approached the bank, one of the employees met with Kubesh and pretended there was a problem with the account system and got stuck.
“We didn’t say, ‘Please stay in your office because the police are coming,'” Valois said with a laugh.
Email and the new coronavirus
According to the report, check fraud in the United States nearly doubled from 2021 to 2022, from 350,000 cases to more than 680,000 cases. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (Finsen).
Prior to that, complaints increased by 161% from 2020 to 2021.
Scammers target the US postal system to steal checks. Many people are taking advantage of COVID-19 stimulus checks and other benefits. Finsen pointed out.
“Check fraud is a serious problem,” Barrois said, adding that it can impact credit union members.
“We want to remain vigilant,” she continued. “And I’m very proud of our team for being very cautious and making sure we were doing the right thing.”
‘Never in a million years’
Valois theorized that Kubesh was planning to move the funds into an account and start encrypting them elsewhere.
If the staff hadn’t noticed the red flags, she might have gotten away, but they wouldn’t have been able to cash the entire check.
“You wouldn’t in a million years be able to get someone to cash out $900,000 in cash,” Valois said, adding that Waihai has a cash withdrawal limit of $5,000 per person per day.
Even if no maximum amount had been set, such a cash conversion would have accounted for one-third of the bank’s cash on hand, even though the bank’s total assets are $378 million. . ibanknet.com.
Cash on hand is only a small portion of total assets because financial institutions don’t have a lot of cash on hand and would rather invest it, Barrois said.
And for those who have never come close to $1 million in cash before, Valois also said, “It would take forever to count it, and she would need a lot of stuff to carry it.” It will be,” he said.
claire mcfarland It can be accessed at Clair@CowboyStateDaily.com.
