Renee Thordson (left) of Alliance Bank, Becky Hulke of United Prairie Bank (center) and Kari Steele of United Prairie Bank (right) spoke on the new collaboration between New Ulm financial institutes to fight back against financial scams. The new partnership includes Alliance Bank, Frandsen Band & Trust, Citizens Bank, Bank Midwest, United Prairie and SouthPoint Financial Credit Union. The six financial institutions hold a special fraud seminar on May 28.

NEW ULM – Financial fraud and scams are a growing and evolving problem in the New Ulm area.

Local law enforcement continues to get high number of scam reports and it is a daily issue at local banks. To fight the growing problem, the six New Ulm banks and financial institutions decided to collaborate to share information and educate the public.

Renee Thordson, a personal banker at Alliance Bank said the idea to join forces with other local financial institutions came after attending a Network New Ulm program at the Brown County Sheriff’s Office.

“It was eye-opening to me how many calls they are getting through dispatch regarding fraud,” Thordson said. She asked herself, how could the financial institute alleviate and educate the public on fraud?

This led to the collaboration with the other financial institutions including Alliance Bank, Frandsen Bank & Trust, Citizens Bank, Bank Midwest, United Prairie and SouthPoint Financial Credit Union.

The idea behind the collaboration is if one of the financial institutions detects fraud or learns of a scam, information is shared with the group.

“We all have our customers at the top of our mind, how do we protect them,” Kari Steele of United Prairie Bank said. “These scammers are already three to five steps ahead of us because they don’t think like they do. By working with the community, we can slow this down and stop them.”

Thordson said the unfortunate truth is each of the financial institutes are seeing scam attempts every day. She said financial scams are no longer the work of a single amateur working from on their computer, but professional groups working scam victims out of life savings.

By comparing notes and educating everyone about the schemes, Thordson believes they can help one another.

“A lot of our clients are not just a customer here, they are a customer down the street,” Thordson said. “It’s really protecting the community as a whole.”

One of the first initiatives of the collaboration is a free seminar for the public called “Let’s Talk About Fraud.” The seminar is 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, May 28 at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church. The seminar is designed to provided the public with information on scams and answer questions from the experts.

The “Let’s Talk About Fraud” seminar runs from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. with a free lunch provided.

Thordson said the first part of the seminar will be run by the financial institute. She said they would provide information, but they also wanted feedback from the public. They want to know what the public is hearing about potential scams.

Steele said the seminar is also a chance to put a face to the local financial institutes. One of the struggles with financial fraud cases is many victims are afraid or ashamed to talk about with their banks.

“We want our clients to talk to us,” Thordson said. “There should never be hesitation. We are here to help. We’re not here to judge or shame you.”

Steele said the goal of many scammers is to shame or scare victims into cooperating. Scammers do not want potential victims reaching out to actual financial advisors.

Thordson said it does happen that a customer will come into the bank talking to a scammer who is pressuring them into a scam.

Scammers will sometimes try to get potential victims to lie to bank staff through threats or intimidation.

Steele said many of these threats are empty and the scammer has no way to carry it out, but in the urgency of the moment, the victim might not know it.

Thordson said Alliance has seen scammers send fake FBI badges in text messages to intimidate clients.

Steele said another scam is to trick a victim into thinking they committed a crime and attempt to shame them into paying.

“That’s where the embarrassment comes in,” Thordson said.

Thordson said it was important to know these scams do not target a single age group. Many of the scams target senior citizens, but teenagers can be victims too. There have been incidents in which high school students are shamed into giving funds.

“It is every age, every scam imaginable,” Steele said.

“And unfortunately there are always new ones,” Thordson said.

Some of the common scams include business impersonators, government impersonators, grandkid impersonators, tech support scams, “you’ve won” scams; employment scams, charity frauds, health insurance scams, investment scams and romance scams.

Thordson and Steele said the best advice is to never give out passwords or social security numbers.

Steel said banks and even health institutes would never request that information over the phone.

“I think the biggest thing is educating people on what is going on,” Thordson said. One of the best methods for educating the public is through the May 28 seminar.

All six New Ulm financial institutes are supporting the seminar and will have representatives attending.

“Sponsoring this fraud seminar is part of our broader mission to protect and empower our members and community in an increasingly complex financial world,” Melissa Bergeman of SouthPoint Financial Credit Union said. “Fraud affects individuals on a deeply personal level, threatening not only their financial well-being but also their sense of security and trust.”

We’re proud to be part of this event to help raise awareness about fraud,” Crystal Altmann of Citizens Bank said.

“By working together, financial institutions can leverage their collective expertise and resources to combat fraud, ensuring the safety and trust of our communities,” Stacie Wolter of Bank Midwest said.

Steele said this is the first of these seminars, but there could be future seminars as needed.

“We’re all open to protecting our community,” she said. “If this is something that needs to be held monthly, we’re going to be there supporting it.”