Last year representatives of New Ulm’s financial institutes came together to fight back against financial scams. One year later, the team is still working to keep the community safe from financial fraud. The group will be hosting another fraud seminar on Wednesday, May 20 to keep the public informed. From left to right: Becky Hulke from United Prairie Bank, Kari Steele of United Prairie Bank, Renee Thordson from Alliance Bank, Arien Sell Bank Midwest, Bridget Whitney Bank Midwest and Melissa Braulick Frandsen Bank

NEW ULM – Financial fraud and scams remain a persistent issue in the New Ulm area.

Last year, six New Ulm banks and financial institutions decided to collaborate to share information and educate the public on the scams.

The idea behind the collaboration is that if one of the financial institutions detects fraud or learns of a scam, information is shared with the group. Another action coming of the collaboration was a special fraud seminar that featured a discussion panel with representatives of the different financial institutes followed by a law enforcement panel and in between discussions with members of Brown County Family Services.

Renee Thordson, a personal banker at Alliance Bank, said the idea was to host another fraud seminar on Wednesday, May 20, at the New Ulm Community Center. The seminar is from 8:30-10:30 a.m. and is free to the public. Once again, the New Ulm Police Department, Brown County Sheriff’s Office and Brown County Human Services and representatives from Oak Hills Living Center will attend to provide input.

Fraud and financial scams have not slowed in the New Ulm area. All of the banking institutions report fraud or attempting fraud on a nearly daily basis.

Becky Hulke with United Prairie Bank said the “gift card” scam is still happening in the community. This is when a scammer will attempt to get the victim to pay for a fraudulent fine through buying and sending the scammer gift cards.

The gift card scam has become so prevalent that many stores selling gift cards will intervene if a person is purchasing the cards in bulk. That is why savoy scammers will tell victims to buy the cards from separate stores.

Previously with the gift card scam, the scammers would impersonate family members who were facing an emergency. Recently, scammers have taken to impersonating law enforcement.

Another new scheme is to impersonate bank employees.

Bridget Whitney of Bank Midwest said a scammer recently contacted a client pretending to be from the fraud center, attempting to steal a debit card number.

Kari Steele with United Prairie Bank said some scammers will use fraud alerts to their advantage. When impersonating bank officials, they will attempt to walk clients through circumventing security measures put in place by the bank.

Whitney said these fraud attempts force the banks to continually update security and issue alerts to customers.

Steele said a good way to tell if it is a scammer is that an actual representative of the bank would never ask for card information over the phone because a real bank representative would already have that information.

“When it doubt, go to your local branch and talk to a real person,” Whitney said.

Since many banking institutes are becoming aware of the scams, many financial criminals are trying to prevent victims from alerting their banks to any problem. On of the best examples of this is the “check washing” scam.

Check washing is when a criminal steals a check from the mail and erases the ink and rewrites it to take funds from an account.

“We’ve closed accounts based on that activity,” Hulke said. “It is a very big problem right now.”

Hulke said wire transfer scams are slowing down some because banks have been able to educate clients about those types of scams. She said the new goal of scammers is to get to the customer before the customer has a chance to check with their bank. The check washing scheme works because often the victim does not know their check has been altered until the money is already gone.

Due to the prevalence of check washing schemes, many banks are recommending against mailing out checks unless is brought directly to the post office. Even then, it is still possible for a check to be stolen somewhere during transit. Another tip was to avoid mailing or shipping cash for the same reason.

Hulke said one the worse thing a client could do is put the red flag on their mailbox up. This alerts potential thieves that there is something worth stealing in the mail box.

She said the mailbox red flag is a huge red fag.

Other banks have begun purchasing security pens for clients that use special ink that make impossible to erase ink from a check.

Whitney said this is not a problem for individuals alone. Businesses need to be worried about scams as well. If a check issued from a business gets washed, it can create a nightmare situation.

Steele said that because businesses write a lot of check and by the time they get their monthly statement, several bad checks have gone through the system before they realize there is a problem.

The best piece of advice the banks can give to avoid the same is to monitor accounts regularly for fraudulent charges. It is relatively easy to turn off a debit card if fraud is suspected.

Hulke said most scammers operating over the phone will try to rush victims and pressure them into taking action before they have a chance to think. Stopping and thinking is the best weapon against scammers.

“I think it is good to keep raising awareness,” Thordson said. “We do get more calls of people second-guessing things. They are thinking more and that’s what we want them to do: think before acting.”

In addition to providing information on how to prevent fraud, the May 20 seminar is an opportunity to meet with representatives of the different banks and put a face to those protecting accounts.

Thordson said since the banks began collaborating on fighting fraud a year ago, they have collectively benefited by keeping each other alert and show the public they are working on this together.