Lexington Rotarians get scary fraud stories from a local bank security official
Originally published by WEKU.
An international study showed big banks lost hundreds of billions of dollars through fraud last year. That was the first slide of a presentation to Lexington Rotarians Thursday.
Central Bank Senior Vice President Shane Ensminger says only about 25% of individual customers report fraud losses. He said checks are the number one threat to the financial sector. Ensminger told Rotarians organized criminals entice the homeless with payments to go into banks to cash counterfeit checks.
“Bad guys will buy check stock like at Walmart or Staples and they’ll have a computer with them. So all they can do is check stocks are blank, they just add your accounting number, your routing number to the bottom of the check and now they’ve got your account,” said Ensminger.
Ensminger said the chips found in cards do offer protections. The former Metro Lexington police officer noted cellphone-related payments should only be made to someone you know. Ensminger added training sessions are held at banks all over the country on watching for red flags.
He said about three weeks ago out-of-town criminals were traveling through Lexington’s higher-income neighborhoods, checking mailboxes
“And they stole mail from probably 150 homes in Lexington. And all they wanted was checks. And every check that they got they went straight to that bank and cashed that check. And they got a ton of personal checks that way,” said Ensminger.
Ensminger said these thieves don’t have to change the amount on checks just the name of the payee. And that’s what comprises the counterfeit check.
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Originally published by WEKU.
Republished with permission.
