SAN ANTONIO - A local couple thought a well-known app used to transfer money was safe to use, but thieves were able to steal thousands of dollars.

Frustrated that their credit union's fraud department didn't cover their loss, they reached out to Fox San Antonio's Problem Solver Darian Trotter for help.

It was a normal day for the Wrights when Cynthia got a disturbing phone call from their credit union.

"Saying there was some suspicious activity on our account and they asked if we were in the U.K."

They were here in San Antonio.

Cynthia called her husband Joseph to see if he'd been shopping online.

"When he said no it wasn't him, I went into panic made immediately," said Cynthia Wright. "Like oh my god, what's happened."

Turns out, 11 payments in the amounts of $300 and $500 were withdrawn from their checking account.

Thieves used Cash App a popular mobile service used to send money to snag a total of $4,000.

The fraudulent activity happened over a four day period. The money was paid to the same merchant over seas.

"I was completely upset," Wright says.

The wright's were angry that Baptist Federal Credit Union didn't notify them sooner.

"If I go out and shop and I spend $500 they call me or him immediately and we're several days into this," Cynthia Wright said. "So it blew my mind. How is it that we have eleven unauthorized transactions and no one knows?"

Good thing they had fraud protection, or so they thought.

They reached out to cash app and tried filing a claim with their credit union.

"It was just back and forth, no it's the bank, no it's Cash App, no it's the bank," Wright said.

Jason Meza said, "Not entirely surprised. It's a common tale now."

Jason Meza with the Better Business Bureau says fraud connected to money transferring apps is on the rise in South Texas.

He's seen cases where customers have lost $10,000 or more.

"It is something that's happening," Meza said. "We just advise that people really do their homework before going into a situation where they might be back into a corner."

He says be sure to check out the policy of your financial institution before using third party, money transferring services like Cash App.

The wright's found out after the fact in an email from the president of their credit union, that losses from use of third party apps are not covered under fraud protection.

"We've been enrolled in fraud protection forever and now that we need it nobody can help us," Wright said.

The Wrights say they immediately filed a police report and fought without success for a whole year to get their money back.

Things changed after we got involved.

The credit union has recently issued a credit for every fraudulent Cash App transaction.

In a statement, Baptist Federal Credit Union President Nick Holguin now says, "Mobile payment services fraud is covered under their bond."

"I can't believe it, I could barely sleep last night," said Cynthia Wright.

We met back up with the Wrights, three weeks later, to share the good news.

Baptist Federal Credit Union says because their debit card was linked to their Cash App their fraud claim was handled as debit card fraud.

"We really appreciate it, we tried and tried to no avail, it didn't happen until you guys were involved," Wright said. "So, thank you so much."

"Experts recommend linking a credit card instead of a debit card to peer to peer services like Cash App," said Problem Solver Reporter Darian Trotter. "Because they say it's easier to recover funds lost due to fraud."

Since the Problem Solver series began, Darian has been able to help people recovery more than $200,000.