CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A Torrington man is charged with felony fraud after allegedly using a third-party payment app to repeatedly deposit money into his WyHy Federal Credit Union accounts, withdraw the cash, and then have the original transactions reversed, resulting in a loss of more than $8,700 for the credit union.
Logan Patrick Reifschneider is presumed innocent unless he pleads or is found guilty.
According to a court affidavit, Cheyenne police opened an investigation on March 13 after a WyHy Federal Credit Union fraud specialist reported the fraudulent activity.
According to her, Reifschneider used a third-party payment platform called ProPay to transfer money into his WyHy account. The deposits were subsequently reversed due to insufficient funds in the originating account.
The affidavit states that if a recipient withdraws funds before a transaction is rejected, the financial institution suffers a loss.
The fraud specialist discovered four fraudulent transactions between February 2 and February 6. On February 3, a $3,000 deposit was made into Reifschneider’s savings account via ProPay.
The funds were then moved to his checking account, which had a negative balance. Over the next two days, the $3,000 was withdrawn via debit card, ATM, and bill payments.
The original ProPay deposit was reversed on February 7, leaving the checking account with a negative balance.
Another example cited was a $2,500 deposit on February 6, which was returned for insufficient funds on February 12 after Reifschneider had made a loan payment and incurred additional fees.
While the total value of the returned transactions was $8,902.47, the credit union experienced a confirmed loss of $8,725.59.
A Cheyenne Police Department detective spoke with Reifschneider by phone on May 16. Reifschneider reportedly acknowledged the account issues and pledged to repay the credit union by May 23. However, on May 29, the fraud specialist confirmed that the money had not been returned.
When contacted on June 17, Reifschneider reiterated his intention to repay the money. As of July 11, the funds had not been returned.
Reifschneider was arrested on July 29.
