A YOUTH club saw thousands of dollars drained from their bank accounts, saying the incident has left them struggling to gather funds.
Last fall, the Maryland Exiles Rugby Club in Sandy Spring, Maryland – roughly 30 miles southwest of Baltimore – saw around $17,000 stolen from them.
3
3
3
The funds were drained from their bank account through dozens of transactions over three days in September, head coach Dan Soso told local CBS/ABC radio station WTOP-FM.
The hackers withdrew $300 at a time, stealing a total amount of around $17,000.
The nonprofit youth group has around 100 members between the ages of 5 and 18, all of whom practice and play rugby together.
To fund the organization through fees and fundraising, the group has said it used Cash App to collect money before transferring it into a Sandy Spring Bank account.
The organization claimed that the bank account was hacked using a “cloned” Cash App account similar to their own.
“They cloned and hacked into one of our coach’s CashApp and made 59 transactions from our bank account, right under the amount to trigger anything,” coach Tom Smith told CBS affiliate WUSA 9.
The club claimed they had been unaware of the transactions until the bank informed them that there was an overdraft of $1,000 on their account.
“In the end of three and a half days, they completely depleted the account,” Soso said.
“Nobody at the bank notified us — nothing.”
He went on to say the incident left them “shocked.”
“These kids really worked hard to save the money,” Soso added.
“To see the fruits of our labor were all stolen by somebody with a clever mind and a laptop was really, really devastating.”
Now, more than six months after the club’s accounts were reportedly hacked, they are still struggling to fund their rugby season.
Smith revealed that they have had to rely heavily on the community, accepting donations as small as $5.
They have raised more than $3,000 for the spring season in an online campaign.
Top tips on avoiding scams from a bank
As scams become more sophisticated with the use of artificial intelligence, it is important you know how to spot a scam and how to avoid them.
- Be skeptical of online deals that seem too good to be true, especially on social media.
- Scammers will often use tactics to make you panicked so you make quick decisions – be cautious if you are told to take immediate action and verify who has contacted you.
- Chase Bank warns customers to “never return any unexpected funds without calling Chase first.”
- Never send money to someone you have only spoken to online or by phone as this is likely a romance scam.
- Unless you 100% know who you are talking to, never give someone remote access to your device.
- Never accept help from strangers at an ATM and always be vigilant when making withdrawals.
- Do not send money or click any links indicating that you have won a prize.
Source: Chase.com
“Our community has rallied around us,” Smith told the outlet.
“Those $5-$10 dollar donations has helped us make sure we are good, but at the end of the day there are bigger things we want to do so we are trying to recover that $17,000.”
He later warned that the incident “opened our eyes.”
“When you’re in need, let your community know. We’ve been humbled by how much the community has rallied around us,” he added.
As of Wednesday, Smith told WUSA 9 that the club will likely not receive a refund for the stolen money.
As they work toward raising the rest of the $17,000, the youth club is hosting a three-day rugby event to raise more funds.
The event, dubbed “Ruck n Roll,” will feature games between teams across the region as well as rugby gear available for purchase.
Credit Gist New Today News in Newspaper Nigeria Headlines