Keta Roberson lives nearly 25 miles away from an ATM on Wyoming Avenue in Detroit where two $1,000 withdrawals from her account were made in late March. She says she has never been to that ATM; she says she has no reason to go to Detroit.
But Michigan First Credit Union is essentially blaming her for the ATM withdrawals and has refused to reimburse her, even though the credit union’s security camera video appears to show two other people getting the money in the middle of the night.
It’s shocking to imagine that there could be photos of someone actually taking money out of your account, and yet you’re left holding the bag? But we’re living in a tech-heavy financial universe where many consumers are hit by scams — and tough policy stances by financial institutions.
Still, some types of ATM fraud offer far better protections to consumers. Many times once a financial institution investigates a complaint and determines that the customer isn’t a bad actor or didn’t fall for some types of scams directly, the money is reimbursed.
Roberson is one of four Michigan First Credit Union customers who talked with me about their financial headaches and frustrations after an account was targeted by scammers. They never saw the money again. In three of the cases, the crooks apparently might have walked right up to the same Michigan First Credit Union ATM on Wyoming in Detroit to get some of the cash. In another case, it was an ATM in Eastpointe.
Roberson is going so far as to challenge the Lathrup Village-based credit union, which has nearly $1.5 billion in assets, in district court. The lawsuit is seeking three times the actual amount of damages, which might amount to more than $15,798 because damages, as determined by the court, include money lost, late fees, fines for insufficient funds on checks and other payments outstanding at the time of the theft and other factors.
It has been one incredible legal journey, including needing to get an attorney after the credit union had the case removed from small claims court to general district court.
The Electronic Funds Transfer Act, which governs ATMs but does not clearly cover wire transfers, is implemented through Regulation E. The act allows for what’s called fee-shifting, meaning if a financial institution violates the statute, the financial institution is responsible for paying the consumer’s legal fees. An attorney often agrees to represent a consumer in such cases on a contingency basis.
Roberson says she’s lost $5,266 in all — the two ATM withdrawals, one $2,000 transfer out of her account to a person she doesn’t know, another $1,000 transfer to someone she doesn’t know and a mobile banking transfer for $266 that she says she didn’t make.
“All of that, just wiped out overnight, all that money,” said Roberson, recalling the ordeal months later as she sat in her pleasant apartment in Clinton Township. Her paycheck for her job as a health aide had just been sent via direct deposit into her account.
To boot, she got hit with a $19 overdraft fee because her rent check bounced after the fraud took place.
“I want my money,” Roberson said.
The four women I talked with all said they were on tight budgets, and losing anywhere from $1,000 to more than $5,000 each to fraud meant some bills initially didn’t get paid.
What’s unsettling is that consumers tend to have more potential clear-cut protections involving some fraudulent ATM withdrawals than other situations, such as when a scam involves a wire transfer of money out of your account. But these consumers didn’t get any money back.
Consumer advocates share customer concerns. Some maintain that stronger, enforceable protections are needed to require banks and payment companies to take more responsibility for the fraud that enters their systems.
It shouldn’t be this hard, overall, but it is. It really is for many consumers.
Michigan First Credit Union says it follows regulations
Michigan First Credit Union is among the top 20 out of 186 credit unions in Michigan by a ranking of assets, based on data from America’s Credit Unions, an advocacy group. Michigan First Credit Union started 98 years ago as the Detroit Teachers Credit Union.
The state’s largest credit union is Lake Michigan Credit Union with about $14.26 billion in assets.
A spokesperson for Michigan First Credit Union said privacy laws prevent the credit union from answering questions about specific situations involving customers. But the credit union maintains that it is following regulations.
In a statement responding to questions from the Detroit Free Press, the credit union said: “Each member claim is investigated based on its unique circumstances and where law or regulation requires that a member be reimbursed, Michigan First promptly reimburses the members.”
It continued: “Unfortunately, not every claim raised by our members is reimbursable under state or federal law.”
The credit union noted that fraud is “by no means unique to Michigan First” and is on the rise in banking and other industries. The credit union said it is constantly updating its technology and educating its members to combat fraud.
“Every situation is unique, and our fraud investigation team takes every report of fraud very seriously and works diligently to investigate and resolve the matter. There are many cases where our members have been reimbursed.“
“Michigan First fully complies with all of its obligations under both state and federal law, including all applicable regulations.”
The credit union said it works with legal counsel to ensure compliance with “all laws governing our member’s accounts and the investigation of member claims and disputes.”
Account holders wait for an explanation
The stories I heard from four victims while reporting this column over the past few months remain troubling, as these women did not receive much explanation on how their money was stolen. The rules of the road often aren’t clear — and it doesn’t help when financial institutions often don’t disclose exactly what they maintain consumers did wrong to fuel the fraud and why they aren’t protected.
Some victims shared their experiences with me in the spring after I wrote a column in May about another type of online fraud involving a $1,379.60 credit card purchase. The money paid for concert tickets for a show, which took place a year ago, given by R&B artist Maxwell in Alabama.
The tickets were never used, and the Michigan First Credit Union customer in Grosse Pointe Woods said she did not buy them. That customer still has not seen what she said are unauthorized charges removed from her credit card, even though she disputed them. When I inquired about this case at the time, Michigan First Credit Union told me it was prohibited by federal law from “confirming if someone is a member or sharing specific details about accounts, transactions, or claims.”
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Financial upheaval hit right when she was heading out of town
Amber Ewing, of Allen Park, became alarmed when she spotted that she was overdrawn by $530 in late March. She was about to take her daughter on a trip to North Carolina and thought the overdraft had to be an error because she was just paid that day.
It was horrible timing, triggering a great deal of stress.
Ewing filed a police report in Allen Park on March 28 reporting that her paycheck was deposited to her account at Michigan First Credit Union. According to the police report, Ewing said $980 was withdrawn from a Michigan First Credit Union ATM in Eastpointe, some 23 miles from her home, by someone other than her.
Ewing, 44, reviewed her online banking account, according to the police report, and also discovered that $1,000 was transferred out of her Michigan First Credit Union account during the night to a woman who was supposedly named “Carolyn Sheppard.” No idea who that is, Ewing said. But at one point, she believed that a Zelle account was opened for another credit union member in her 70s and closed the same day as part of the scam.
Ewing said Zelle is automatically part of the Michigan First app. She speculated that the crooks used a desktop computer, took her credentials and sent money out of her account via Zelle at 2:40 a.m., according to the Zelle history in her credit union app.
“The account that was opened was a Michigan First account that they closed the same day,” Ewing said.
Ewing reported the fraud incidents to the credit union and had her account suspended. But she has not been able to get any money back. She took out a loan to deal with bills after the financial loss.
Ewing said it’s a trauma that she has tried to put behind her, but she is concerned about elderly customers who may be unaware that something like this could happen. “Who will advocate for them?” she said.
One day, she was shocked she couldn’t buy a cup of coffee
Elena Herrada, 67, lives on $2,100 a month — her Social Security check and a $455 monthly pension after working for the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union Local 1064 where she started as a business representative and later rose to local union president. The former Warren-based union local once had contracts that covered cafeteria workers in factories.
On May 30, the day after Herrada knew she was to get a direct deposit of retirement money, she was with a friend in Flint and couldn’t even pick up the tab for their coffee. Her debit card was declined. It had to be a mistake, she thought, knowing she tracks every dime closely. She stopped working full time in 2018, but has picked up some limited work when able.
“When you live on as little money as I do, it’s really not hard to follow your money,” Herrada said.
When she went to the credit union the day after she couldn’t buy coffee, she discovered that about $2,455 had been withdrawn by someone else from her account — including $455 in cash taken at the Michigan First Credit Union ATM on Wyoming. She filed a police report at the 3rd Precinct in Detroit. She said she was told by the credit union that someone had used a paperless app so that a debit card wasn’t needed to withdraw her money at the ATM.
“Somebody was actually watching it and got it the day it dropped,” Herrada said.
In addition, she said, $2,000 was stolen when that money was transferred into another account that wasn’t hers. She’s not sure whether crooks used a Zelle account or another method to get that money.
The credit union sent her one letter on June 11, saying that no error had occurred. “Records show that you voluntarily provided your one-time passcode to another individual,” according to letter.
“I never got my money back,” Herrada said during an interview in October.
“That was an entire month of my livelihood,” she said. “It’s a month of all my money that I’m never going to get back.”
Herrada said she has had many calls in the past from the credit union, asking whether she bought something, maybe like at a gas station in Chicago, that she didn’t. “If I said no,” she said, “they’d say, ‘OK, we’re going to report it to the fraud department.’ “
She received a call a few months ago where the caller ID claimed it was Michigan First Credit Union and she was then asked about purchases she didn’t make. Herrada said she gave the caller permission to give the information to the fraud department.
“The credit union told me the reason that this was my fault was because I gave someone a code to get into my account,” Herrada said. “Which I absolutely dispute. I did not give anyone permission to get into my account.”
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At times, she said, she’s more upset with the credit union for the way it treated her than she is with the hackers. Besides not getting her money back, she was hit with a string of fees when bills set up on autopay couldn’t be covered when her account fell short after the fraud.
“First, they don’t watch my money, then they fine me because it’s not there,” Herrada said.
She has since refinanced her home in Corktown where she has lived for 30 years to pay off all her loans to the credit union. (Now that Corktown is a hot area in Detroit, she said, real estate agents “circle like sharks.” She’s not moving.)
She opened an account at a major bank to receive a direct deposit of her retirement checks there. She remains a credit union member after 45 years, keeping a small amount of savings at the credit union. Overall, though, she wanted to move on because she didn’t feel the credit union was doing enough to prevent the fraud, and instead indicated that it could happen again.
“It’s like saying the lock on your front door is broken,” Herrada said, “but we’re not going to fix it, so just be careful.”
She still had her ATM card but crooks struck anyway
Chevelle Price, 56, said she lost about $1,000 from her account at Michigan First Credit Union, which wiped out her entire account. The crooks, she said, got the money from the credit union’s ATM at Wyoming Avenue and Seven Mile Road in Detroit. She typically goes to the main branch on Evergreen in Lathrup Village.
“I’ve never taken $1,000 out at the ATM,” Price told the Free Press. She filed a police report with at the 8th Precinct in Detroit on June 17. She told police she still had her ATM card in her possession at the time of the fraud.
Price also received a call that claimed to be from the fraud department of the credit union. The caller read her the amount of the last deposit she made to cover her bills, money from family members who are trying to help her out during an illness.
“They knew exactly what it was,” said Price, who used to be a home health aide before she ran into her own health problems.
Fraudsters in the past had gained access to her account, ordering flowers and paying their cellphone bill, Price said. But in those cases, the credit union made her whole. She, too, didn’t suspect anything was wrong when she got another call.
Price remembers that she read back a one-time code when she was on the call that she thought was with a credit union representative who was helping to clear things up.
Then, though, she thought something didn’t feel right when she got off the phone and talked to her daughter who encouraged her to call the credit union again. When she called, the credit union representative said no one called her.
Price described the whole situation as “sickening.” After the money was stolen, she wasn’t able to pay all her bills and has since been playing catch-up.
The credit union, she said, later told her that she was a victim of spoofing, where crooks try to convince you that you’re communicating with a legitimate source. The credit union said she should have known she was being spoofed.
“I don’t know nothing about spoofing,” Price said.
Such schemes can work, in part, because online thieves often use real phone numbers on caller ID and make emails appear to be from your bank, credit card issuer or a payment app, when they are not.
When Price filed the police report in Detroit, she said she was told that several others had filed a police report on the same issue involving the same credit union. Detroit Police did not readily offer information to confirm Price’s statement.
She says the caller had her PIN number
Robin Wagner, the attorney who represents Roberson, who lost $5,266, said Roberson’s phone records indicated that the call in March was indeed the phone number for Michigan First Credit Union. While the number could have been spoofed, Wagner said, it gave Roberson reason to believe the credit union was making the call.
The caller who phoned at 7:03 p.m. March 29 indicated there was suspicious activity on Roberson’s accounts, according to legal documents filed by Wagner in the case. “A woman in Texas appeared to be attempting to withdraw $500 from her account and he asked if this was authorized.”
Roberson told the caller it wasn’t authorized, according to the filing, and asked the man to stop the withdrawal. The call lasted 22 minutes, according to the legal filing.
Roberson said the credit union alerted her to fraud in the past, which made the phone call in March seem even more plausible. She was reimbursed in the past.
Roberson, who has worked as a health aide with elderly patients, said the whole event stressed her out so much that lost nearly 30 pounds, down to 106 pounds. She doesn’t believe she’s at fault.
Roberson, 47, said whoever called had her PIN number, her account number and read them to her and asked her to confirm the numbers. Believing she was talking with someone at the credit union out to prevent fraud, she confirmed the numbers.
She believed she received an email during the process, but she received a text, according to her phone records. Roberson maintains, according to legal filings, that she did not provide anyone with the number in the message. Instead, she said, the man on the phone read the number to her.
The caller read the number to Roberson, according to the legal filing, but he made a mistake on one digit, and Roberson corrected him.
“He told me my password because my account was locked.”
In addition to the ATM transactions, her banking records show that the $2,000 was transferred to someone named “Charity Annette Wade” on March 29. The $1,000 was transferred to a “Christina J. Bailey” on March 30. Again, Roberson has no idea who these people are or why they got her money. Or even, really, if those names are real.
Roberson said she never clicked on anything or read anything from an email that was sent to her during the call.
According to the legal complaint filed in District Court 41B in Clinton Township, the caller told Roberson that Michigan First Credit Union would be locking her accounts. She would be contacted by a law enforcement agency in the future, the caller said. She was never contacted by law enforcement.
Security cameras offer some strange sights
Wagner, the attorney who represents Roberson and filed the complaint against Michigan First Credit Union, shared photos and videos that she received from the credit union as part of discovery in the case.
Two unidentified people, who appear to be younger men, are pictured at separate times late at night withdrawing money from Roberson’s account at the ATM on Wyoming in Detroit.
One person wore a green hat with a white triangle on top and a green jacket with what looks like a white varsity letter B. The person had a mustache, wore a large diamond-like stud earring and appeared to have a tattoo that ran from below one ear down the neck just above the shoulder. That photo was stamped March 29, 2024, at 11:18 p.m.
Another photo showed someone else who wore a black jacket, with the hood up and white lettering inside the hood like a fashion logo. A black mask covered the mouth, nose and ears. The person wore large black frame glasses. That photo is stamped at 12:53 a.m. on March 30, 2024. A video appears to show the person making two withdrawals of cash and turning around frequently to watch traffic. The person stays on the phone, using one hand to hold the phone and another to punch in numbers.
The ATM is in the wall of the credit union branch and part of drive-thru service, which is located at Wyoming and Cambridge in Detroit. The unidentified people in the photos walked up to the ATM; they did not drive cars or trucks through the drive-thru lane.
The credit union branch neighbors both a residential and business area, not far from Detroit school system’s Bates Academy, kindergarten through eighth grade, and the University of Detroit Jesuit High School. The branch sits next to a now vacant Rite Aid.
Wagner, an attorney at Pitt McGehee Palmer Bonanni & Rivers, PC of Royal Oak, said the security camera pictures of the people withdrawing money — both staying on cellphones — are not Keta Roberson. Wagner said records indicated an android phone was used for mobile transactions; Roberson had an iPhone X.
It’s unclear to her, Wagner said, if the people pictured used a phone to withdraw money at the ATM or an ATM card. Roberson had her card, Wagner said. But a card isn’t always necessary.
The Michigan First Credit Union website gives steps for “cardless transactions” without your ATM or debit card. You’d use a mobile app. And you’d need to generate a new number.
A nine-digit code will be displayed and be valid for 60 seconds. It “can be used at the ATM for a single transaction. For security purposes, you will be required to generate a new code for each additional transaction,” the website notes.
In other types of fraud, crooks engage in card skimming. Crooks harvest data, including your PIN number, when you make a purchase at a compromised point-of-sale terminal at a gas station or grocery story or withdraw money at an ATM, said Carla Sanchez-Adams, staff attorney at the National Consumer Law Center.
A small camera near the device could be illegally installed and used to record the consumer entering a PIN number into an ATM. Or a fake keypad could be placed over a real ATM keypad to steal PIN numbers. And then crooks use counterfeit debit cards.
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Theft hits vulnerable households harder than others
Early on, Roberson thought the credit union had resolved the problem. But she was shocked to learn on April 1 that the money was stolen. The panic that set in only made things worse.
She rushed during her work hours to a credit union branch in a Kroger store in Madison Heights to see whether anything could be done. Taking quick action triggered another loss: Leaving work early meant she would lose a day’s pay and a biweekly bonus that is given for completing one’s job as scheduled. She estimates that cost her about $1,200.
“I never missed that bonus in a year and a half,” she said.
The loss at Michigan First Credit Union hangs over Roberson, particularly given other bills and burdens.
Roberson said she felt she could no longer afford study materials for classes in surgical technology at Macomb County Community College. Her federal income taxes were due April 15. And she wanted a new phone after the fraud, including getting her phone number changed, because she wasn’t sure how crooks got access to her account.
“I didn’t trust anybody,” she said.
She’s still a member of the credit union because she has her car loan there. Though she isn’t working now for health reasons, she has been able to stay in her apartment with the help of a friend.
Roberson had another another account at a different credit union that had approximately $5,000 in it at the time of the fraud, according to Wagner. No influx of money after the fraud took place hit that account, Wagner added.
Like some others who lost money in bank account-related scams, Roberson said she believes that the crooks knew when to strike to get access to her paycheck after it was direct-deposited into the account. Roberson, a certified nurse assistant, said she only took seven days off in the month before, leading up to a fairly decent paycheck.
“I worked very hard, 12-hour shifts,” she said.
Roberson exercised reasonable care, Wagner said, and called the bank immediately. “She did everything she could have done,” Wagner said. Roberson, she said, didn’t know the people who received transfers and she didn’t benefit from the transactions.
Michigan law, Wagner said, requires the credit union to do a good faith investigation. “And they couldn’t have,” she said, “because they didn’t provide her with any information that makes it sound like they did an investigation.”
“They didn’t really follow through in any meaningful way. They’re not providing any credible explanation of what happened, honestly,” Wagner said.
“Somehow, they didn’t seem to think it odd that she was pulling thousands of dollars out of her account in a day?” Wagner said. She expects a court hearing later in November.
The credit union also has an arbitration clause for its customers, which requires all matters except for those filed in small claims court, to be adjudicated through arbitration. And the credit union is seeking to dismiss the lawsuit because of the arbitration agreement.
Roberson, according to the complaint, “maintained full possession and control of her ATM Card for Michigan First Credit Union and never shared either card or her PIN with anyone.”
Under federal law, a consumer’s liability for an unauthorized use of an ATM card is not related to the consumer’s negligence and depends instead on the consumer’s promptness in reporting the loss or theft of the access device.
Michigan First Credit Union noted that “generally speaking, if money is withdrawn from someone’s account using a stolen PIN, that withdrawal would usually be considered unauthorized.”
“Whether a PIN was stolen needs to be determined based on the specific facts and circumstances surrounding how the PIN ended up in someone’s possession,” the credit union said in a statement.
In most cases, the credit union said, a wire transfer is not considered to be an electronic funds transfer and is governed by a different body of law.
Bank wire transfers typically are covered by weaker state Uniform Commercial Code laws. If the fraudster makes the transfer, there is some protection for unauthorized transfers. But banks can use loopholes or ambiguities to deny reimbursement.
“If the consumer made the transfer, what we call a fraudulently induced transfer, banks will refuse to reimburse and there is no clear remedy,” said Lauren Saunders, associate director for the National Consumer Law Center.
When it comes to ATMs, Saunders said, a withdrawal is unauthorized even if you are defrauded into giving a fraudster your PIN without realizing that they were going to take money out of your account.
“But if you gave your ATM card and PIN to your son so he could take money out, even if he took out more than you said he could, that would be authorized,” Saunders said.
On April 8, Roberson received a notice of final determination from the credit union that stated that after the credit union researched the dispute, it concluded no error occurred. The letter, according to Wagner and the legal complaint, then falsely accused Roberson of providing her passcode to another person and being responsible for the theft of her own money.
What action should consumers take?
Consumers cannot sit back and do nothing when they spot fraud, of course.
You should notify your bank or credit union within two business days of discovering the loss or theft of your security code or PIN for your debit card or bank account, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
“By reporting the theft within two business days, you’re protected from paying for transactions over $50 charged by someone who steals and uses your security code or PIN,” according to the CFPB. “Never write your PIN on your debit card or keep it written down in your wallet, in case your card or wallet is lost or stolen.”
Notify your bank if you spot an unauthorized withdrawal on your bank statement. “At the latest,” the CFPB states, “you must notify your bank within 60 days after your bank or credit union sends your statement showing the unauthorized transaction.”
The longer you wait, the more you risk being hit with paying the full amount of any transactions that occurred after the 60-day period and before you notify your bank.
If a situation such as lengthy travel or hospitalization keeps you from notifying the bank within the time allowed, the notification periods must be extended.
If you’re having trouble getting your money, you can submit a complaint online or call the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau toll-free at 855-411-2372.
Consumers need to be suspicious of every contact that appears to be made from a financial institution or other trusted entity. We’re hearing of more cases where consumers aren’t getting money back, including Zelle transactions.
A U.S. Senate permanent subcommittee on investigations in July, for example, disclosed that nearly two-thirds of consumers were not reimbursed for their losses in 2023 when they disputed a transaction after falling victim to scams involving Zelle at three major banks: Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo. Nearly $102.3 million was not reimbursed in 2023, according to the report.
The subcommittee found several areas where Congress, regulators and the companies that participate in the Zelle Network could take steps to improve consumer protection, including amending the Electronic Fund Transfer Act to require financial institutions to reimburse consumers for “fraudulently induced” authorized transactions.
It was also recommended that the CFPB update Regulation E to require financial institutions to provide greater transparency and more clarity on what constitutes a “reasonable” investigation. The goal is to create a higher standard for dispute investigations, giving banks a minimum set of requirements.
Cyber crooks make good money by targeting checking accounts and bank accounts. Scammers hope to catch you off guard.
They’re not just impersonating the IRS or Amazon. Many times, scammers will impersonate your bank or credit union — and trigger a long list of headaches that you’d never imagine.
Contact personal finance columnist Susan Tompor: [email protected]. Follow her on X (Twitter) @tompor.
This story was updated to add a video.
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