GROVE CITY — Two scams tried to steal money from a credit union.

Mercer state police report various people across the country received counterfeit cashier’s checks from the Grove City Area Federal Credit Union.

Tom Jack, chief executive officer of the credit union, said the scammers successfully copied the check’s appearance.

“It’s our check,” he said this morning.

The counterfeit checks were accurate except for including such fail safe items as water marks, he said.

Although $40,000 was cashed, Jack said the credit union lost no money.

“We caught it early enough,” he said. “We didn’t lose a nickel.”

His staff discovered the problems when a check-cashing service in Texas called to verify funds from an out-of-state source.

The first fraudulent check was dated Sept. 5. Jack didn’t know how many counterfeit checks were issued, but said they jumped ahead the series of check numbers that was being used by the credit union then.

The credit union stopped payment on that series of numbers and subsequently closed that account.

Jack said there appears to be two scams, one of which involved a fake company seeking people to work from home and another one selling automobile parts.

He said in both cases a check in an large amount such as $2,250 was issued to individuals who were asked to keep a smaller amount such as $400 and send the rest back in a new payment.

Jack said the scammers likely got originals from credit union members making legitimate purchases.

“I don’t think our members scammed us,” he said.

Police told Jack the scams likely originated overseas due to their scope spanning various states.

He said police forwarded the case to the FBI, and the First National Bank’s fraud department also is investigating.