Letter: Community response squelched phishers

EDITOR,
On behalf of Liberty Bank, I would like to thank everyone at the Press-Banner, law enforcement (who went above and beyond), the community and our staff at Liberty Bank for working together to prevent people from falling victim to the phishing scam that slammed the San Lorenzo Valley and parts of Santa Cruz County.
While Liberty Bank used traditional methods to notify our customers, non-customers were contacted as well, and we needed help reaching out to all the possible people affected. We’ve since been contacted by banks across the country that fell prey to this same scam and learned about what was really going on through the articles and media attention in Santa Cruz County.
Because of the efforts of everyone, we were able to shut down one source used for calls, prevent fraud, alert banks across the country, and reassure people that no bank information had been compromised. This is a perfect example of a community pulling together to protect local residents.
As of Wednesday, Oct. 14, the phishing scam had returned to the valley, according to bank officials.