(843) 884-6884

Dear Sir:
The incident referred to in this complaint did not involve Merchant Cooperative in any way. Rather, an unidentified automated voice message system was programmed to continuously call random telephone numbers and refer to a problem involving credit card numbers. The Quincy Federal Credit Union as well Merchant Cooperative and many other financial institutions have been victims of this.

These calls have been under investigation by local and federal law enforcement authorities. Most importantly, Merchant Cooperative has absolutely nothing to do with the problem, and has no information about the message, its contents, or who sent it. Again, I cannot overemphasize that the name “Merchant Cooperative” and our local phone number were used without authorization in a pre-recorded message by an unknown person concerning a problem that may or may not exist, and that does not in any way involve Merchant Cooperative. We apologize to anyone who may have received this fictitious message, and Merchant Cooperative assures its customers that it remains ready, willing, and able to continue to provide the superior level of credit card processing services that it has always provided to its merchants.

We have placed a warning of potential scams and the importance of safeguarding one’s personal information on our website as well as our incoming voice queue message at our location. I would like to ask your assistance in this matter also. Is there some way you could post a public warning in regards to this scam? Merchant Cooperative is as much a victim of this scam as any individual that may have been contacted.

For additional information contact or follow up, these agencies are aware of this issue:

Goose Creek Police Department
Federal Bureau of Investigation – Charleston, SC
United States Secret Service – Saginaw, MI

Kind Regards,


Jarret Smotrila
VP/COO