Scammers keep getting better at sounding legitimate, and most people don’t have a trained eye for spotting them.
That gap between how convincing fraud has become and how much the average person knows about it is what the Michigan Credit Union League (MCUL) is trying to close with a new set of cybersecurity videos.
What MCUL Released
The videos are part of Protect What Matters, a consumer education initiative that launched during Cybersecurity Awareness Month. It runs under the League’s statewide Try a Credit Union campaign and aims to help Michigan residents recognize scams and safeguard their financial information.
Credit unions can download the resources for free and use them right away. The collection includes short videos built for social media, covering:
- How to recognize scams
- Using strong passwords
- Turning on multifactor authentication (an extra verification step, like a texted code, on top of your password)
- What to do when something seems suspicious
MCUL also put together a set of downloadable social media graphics with cybersecurity reminders and fraud prevention tips.
Why It Matters
MCUL President/CEO Patty Corkery put the problem plainly: “Scammers are becoming more sophisticated, more aggressive and more convincing, making it increasingly important for consumers to know what to look for and how to protect themselves.”
She added that the goal is to give credit unions “practical, ready-to-use resources to help educate their members and communities so more people can recognize the warning signs and avoid falling for scams.”
Extending the Reach
The videos are also part of a broader statewide advertising push. Protect What Matters messaging is running across social media, streaming audio and digital ads. Making the files available for download lets individual credit unions amplify that message through their own channels, and in front of the members who already know and trust them.
Both the videos and the graphics can be folded into the member communications credit unions already send, so there’s no need to build a new program from scratch.
What to Do Next
If you work at a Michigan credit union, grab the videos and graphics and schedule them into your existing social and member communication calendar. Even a few posts a month can keep fraud awareness in front of your members. If you’re a member, watch for these posts from your credit union, and take the basics to heart: use strong passwords, turn on multifactor authentication, and pause before responding to anything that feels off.