Written by Victoria Daka, Regulatory Compliance Counsel
On December 8, 2015, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a blog post titled, “Beware of Scams Targeting Older People during the Holidays.” As per the CFPB, while scammers target elderly individuals on a daily basis, scammers are expected to “ramp up their efforts to prey on people’s generosity during the holiday season.” As a result, the CFPB cautions about three major forms of scams towards elders: 1) the imposter or “grandparent scam”, 2) the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) scam, and 3) the false or imposter charity scam.
The most common form – the imposter or “grandparent” scam – generally involves a make-believe story where the scammer pretends to be an elderly individual’s family member and is in dire need of money to return home for the holidays. Additionally, under the guise of the IRS, scammers call elderly individuals and threaten them with being arrested for unpaid taxes or a fake debt. Furthermore, this time of year, elders are greeted with the increase in fictitious charities – which sound identical to the real ones. Scammers employing this option, request for year-end, tax-deductible holiday donations.
In response, the CFPB offers some general tips, including: verifying with family members the authenticity of the financial assistance request; verifying the charity solicitation claim by calling the charity directly; and inquiring with IRS directly if taxes are owed.
This blog post can be viewed in its entirety here.
NCUA Agenda
Yesterday, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) Board released its December 17, 2015 agenda. Below are the two items the Board will consider in the meeting:
- Notice and Request for Comment, Regulatory Review in Accordance with the Economic Growth Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act of 1996.
- Final Rule, Part 745, Adding Share Insurance Coverage for Lawyers Trust Accounts and Other Similar Escrow Accounts.
The Board agenda can be found here.
Skill-Building Fundamentals for Effective Risk Management
Live Webcast: Wednesday, December 16 | 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. EST
Risk assessment is vital to the well-being of your credit union. You should be constantly identifying potential hazards involved in an activity or undertaking. And despite the temptation to do otherwise, each credit union must perform its own unique risk assessment – what may work for one credit union, might not be right for yours. This webcast will provide you with a baseline understanding of how to analyze risks, and perform risk assessments on all your products and services.
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