A Virginia work group created under House Bill 190 is working to find solutions to growing electronic transfer fraud.
House Bill 190 directed the Office of the Attorney General to create a work group to look at ways to prevent electronic transfer fraud when it comes to how consumers do their banking.
The group has also been tasked with reviewing the Electronic Funds Transfers Act, a federal law designed to protect consumers when using digital and electronic banking services.
The group recently held a meeting discussing fraud and areas of agreement on the most problematic issues. The work group is examining the overall problem with AI, technology, criminals overseas and a wide variety of aspects related to the issue.
The Department of Justice recently released information about one case involving 11 defendants who were sentenced for their roles in a scheme to defraud credit union members in the Hampton Roads area.
Federal prosecutors called it the parking lot scam.
In certain cases, victims hand their phones over when the criminal pretends to be having an emergency — accounts are compromised and the victim is then forced to pay personal loans they didn't take out.
Virginia Beach Delegate Kelly Converse-Fowler, who represents the 96th District in the Virginia General Assembly, introduced the legislation. She spoke to us about this last spring.
"I introduced HB 190 this year, after finding out about all the instances of fraud and scams that were going on within the credit unions," Converse-Fowler said.
Our WTKR News 3 Investigative Team has continued to expose different kinds of problems related to electronic fraud, and some of those schemes have been highlighted in our coverage.
"Those people that did not take those loans out, should not be paying for them, and that's the part of it that is important out of this work group as long term is prevention and making sure that anyone who has been a victim of scam is made whole again," said Converse-Fowler said.
The work group will report its findings and solutions to the General Assembly by December 1.
"They're going to come up with those recommendations before next session," Converse-Fowler said.
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