A recent surge in bank-account fraud has left local residents wondering where their money went, local bankers working to protect them and law enforcement trying to put a stop to the crimes.

Among the myriad victims are Tim and Cherokee Merklinger of Lakeside.

An identity thief somehow obtained Tim’s debit card information and a copy of the card was made. That fraudulent card was used last weekend to charge $815 in Toronto, Canada.

“Last week, my husband got paid on Wednesday and it direct-deposited in our bank account,” Cherokee said. “Two days later, he texts me and asks, ‘Why do we only have $200 in the account?’”

She said insult was added to injury when they realized they also had been charged an $8 international use fee.

It was not the first time any of them had been targeted. Cherokee said someone did the same thing to her son a few months ago when he opened an account after receiving a Pell grant and enrolling at Flathead Valley Community College.

“They hit him for $600 at Bed, Bath and Beyond,” Cherokee said. “So they got us twice.”

The Merklingers soon discovered they were not alone — Cherokee found out several of her acquaintances had also been defrauded. Just a couple days before the Merklingers became victims, a friend of Cherokee’s told her someone had made fraudulent charges on her account at a business in Georgia.

“It was enough that her rent check bounced,” Cherokee said. “And the landlord did not work with her. He charged her a late fee.”

Another of Cherokee’s friends reported a fraudulent charge of $250 in Houston, and the same day Cherokee posted about her experience on Facebook, another friend told her of business accounts affected, with the money again being used in Toronto.

Still another couple who whom the Merklingers are friends were targeted, but their bank caught the fraudulent charge — originating in Connecticut — before it went through.

“The more people I talk to, the more I find out that there’s a lot of people in Lakeside who got hit, and then not just in Lakeside. It happened to two of our Marine friends in the Flathead Valley last week,” Cherokee said.

Glacier Bank President Bob Nystuen agreed, saying the issue is not isolated to any of the towns in the county or even to the county itself, but is a nationwide if not worldwide problem.

“This has been an ongoing problem, but it seems to have spiked up recently,” he said. “It’s more visible now than we’ve experienced perhaps even earlier this year, and it’s not just affecting Glacier Bank, it’s affecting institutions of all sizes.”

Nystuen said incidents of fraud have increased dramatically in the last 60 days or so, and his employees have been working hard to do everything they could to help those affected.

Cherokee — who banks with Glacier — said Nystuen’s employees were doing a good job, noting that she went to the bank on Friday and was told they would be reimbursed for the $800 they lost within five business days. The Merklingers received that reimbursement Tuesday.

Flathead Bank also is dealing with a major consumer-fraud incident. According to bank representatives, a large number of credit accounts were compromised about three weeks ago, a discovery reported to the bank by the processor that issues the cards.

Flathead Bank Chief Executive Officer John Hanson said the bank was canceling all the affected cards before anyone could make any fraudulent transactions. New cards with new numbers are being issued to replace the compromised cards.

“It’s a worthy effort to see to it that folks don’t have to worry about it,” Hanson said. “It’s part of the cost of being a banking business today. You’ve got to make sure these folks that trust you are taken care of.”

Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry said his office has received many reports of fraud incidents and agreed that they seem to have picked up lately.

Curry said one way the fraud occurs is by criminals attaching smaller card readers to the readers at places such ATMs and gas pumps. When the customer inserts his or her card, it first passes through the illicit reader, scanning and copying all the card information. Curry said that method has not yet been seen locally.

“More commonly, they’ll hack computers from businesses who use the computer that they use for credit and debit transactions for other purposes. Oftentimes they don’t have their security software up to date,” Curry said. “Our suggestion is to always have a dedicated machine and make sure the security software is up to date.”

Nystuen made much the same comment, arguing that perhaps the biggest risk for this type of fraud is merchants that don’t securely maintain their databases.

“Fraudsters will hack into the database of a merchant and obtain that card info, then they can go out and sell that information into the underworld, and all of a sudden, this card info can be transmitted to people overseas, across borders, and ultimately be used to replicate another card that can be used anywhere unbeknownst to the individual who simply went to buy groceries, for example,” Nystuen said.

That is why he said it is so important that banks do everything they can to protect their customers.

“From our vantage point we have to try to be right 100 percent of the time,” Nystuen said. “Fraudsters only need one opportunity to get inside.”

Curry said reports of consumer fraud incidents are passed along to the U.S. Secret Service, the primary federal agency tasked with investigating identity theft and fraud. He noted that the Secret Service held a training session on the topic for local agents on Wednesday.

Reporter Jesse Davis may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at jdavis@dailyinterlake.com.