Jessica Quindlen: [00:00:00] Welcome back to the Sound Cents Podcast. I'm Jessica Quindlen. Today I brought back two of our favorites to discuss safeguarding our finances in 2024. I have LaShae Woodard, our VP of Financial Crimes.
Hello, LaShae.
LaShae Woodard: Hello.
Jessica Quindlen: And Lisa Zurcher, our Fraud Management Manager. Hello, Lisa.
Lisa Zurcher: Hello.
Jessica Quindlen: All right. So, let's dive right in. Lisa, what are the latest trends in financial fraud in 2024?
Lisa Zurcher: So, the latest one that we have seen is a new term. It's called “quishing” with a Q.
Jessica Quindlen: Of course, gotta have a new one.
Lisa Zurcher: Yes. And what that entail is QR codes.
So what fraudsters are doing are creating false QR codes. You know, QR codes are everywhere. We've seen them on ads. We see them on tables at restaurants.
Jessica Quindlen: Especially since Covid, right?
Lisa Zurcher: Yes. And where they have been most prevalent, where we've seen most fraud is at parking meters. That's kind of where it started.
So, when a person goes to scan their parking meter to pay for parking, the fraudster has their own QR [00:01:00] code over the legitimate QR code. And so now you're paying the fraudster and now they've got all of your debit card information.
Jessica Quindlen: And you're getting a parking ticket because you didn't pay for your parking.
Lisa Zurcher: That's right. So that is the latest one. I know when you go to scan a QR code, just double check that URL that you'll see when it pops up on your phone to make sure that you are paying who you think you’re paying.
Jessica Quindlen: So the URL, once you get there - cause I feel like the URL in the picture is usually like “QR whatever” - but once you actually get to your browser.
Lisa Zurcher: Yeah.
Jessica Quindlen: Oh my goodness. I just paid for parking like a week ago.
LaShae Woodard: You hope you paid for parking.
Yes. Right. I know. Now I'm all paranoid. All right. So quishing. Lovely. Are we seeing it other places as well? I mean, just to always be aware like restaurants or anything, or is it mostly parking since that's such an easy…
Lisa Zurcher: That's where it was first discovered… was on the parking meter. So that may have been kind of where they were testing it and who knows where else we will see it. So just take extra caution when you're scanning those QR codes. Lovely.
All right, LaShae, so how have fraudsters adapted to new [00:02:00] technologies aside from quishing and QR codes?
LaShae Woodard: I know. I feel like technology is meant to make your life easier and quicker and faster, which then makes the ability to commit fraud quicker, easier, and faster.
3D printers, you know, you can practically reprint something else. When it comes to skimming devices, what they do is just re print the device that you're typing your information in. So, when you go to type it in and you think that “Oh yeah, I'm typing in my pin number,” it's actually on their device sitting on top of it, and that's how they're capturing it.
We always say that, you know, when you got the chip card that prevented them from being able to read your mag strip, which is great, the theft of your card comes from being able to read your strip because they have not been able to recreate the chip yet. However, some places don't always read your chip and you're there for at the mercy [00:03:00] of that place too.
You know, read it the best way it can. So what they like to do is if they can't get it from you by stealing it, if they've been able to capture your card number, they will then try and reach out to you and trick you into giving your code to set up in their wallet or to give you their PIN number.
So they'll reach out to you in different ways pretending to be someone that you know and trust when they're not someone you know and trust.
Jessica Quindlen: Lovely. Lisa, what proactive measures can individuals take to safeguard their personal information?
Lisa Zurcher: Yeah. So I think you know, the first thing is to make sure that you don't give out any personal information. Nothing. Even if you do think that you're talking to Ent or a trustworthy source, do not give out social security numbers, date of births, debit card information, online banking information, anything that could compromise your accounts or your identity.
It would be great to sign up for a credit monitoring service, like Ent Protect. That way you can get alerts if someone is trying to [00:04:00] open a bank account or you know, sometimes even they'll monitor if your email's out on the black web somewhere. So that's always a popular option. And then we also recommend that people pull their credit annually. You can go to AnnualCreditReport.com, get a free credit report every year just to make sure there's nothing on there that you don't recognize.
Jessica Quindlen: Fantastic. LaShae, how can listeners protect themselves from identity theft, specifically?
LaShae Woodard: I'm pretty sure we all see it on the news. There was a record number of compromises. I, myself, had my information compromised three different companies in 2023. And so information is out there. The best thing you can do is protect what you give out protect access to your information.
If you have passwords to sign in, don't use the same password. And also don't use “password,” “password1”, “password#1”, but don't use the same password. I have a lower [00:05:00] level password I might use to log into store apps and things where you might get credit from. I definitely would not use that password and that username for my bank, for my insurance, for any 401k investments.
I never have the same password for those. I had an officer tell me one time, if you use the same password for everything, then your store card, if they get hacked, now they could then use that password on everything that they may know that you have. You don't want your grocery store to impact your bank account.
Also change your passwords frequently. I know most workplaces require you to change your password every so often. Get in the habit of, you know, Happy New Year, new year, new passwords. So, make sure that you get in there and update those. I also like to remind people is when you log into online banking, it tells you the last time you logged on.
So, if you log on every Sunday and you log in Sunday [00:06:00] and it goes, last logon was yesterday. That's a red flag. Most websites will tell you the last time you logged in. Pay attention to that. That'll let you know if someone has gotten into that.
Jessica Quindlen: I love that. I've never thought of it that way. I love the new year, new password as well. I think there's a lot of things people are changing or working on, and that's not something you think about. So Lisa, how are emerging technologies contributing to new fraud risks?
Lisa Zurcher: So one of the things we're seeing is AI. So AI is this new and upcoming technology that does wonders for businesses and the financial world and makes lives easier when you're trying to pull reports and data analysis and stuff like that, but the fraudsters also have their hands in it as well.
So, it's really smart to just be careful what you post on social media. AI has a way to replicate voices, pictures, all sorts of stuff. If a fraudster gets a hold of something that's posted on social media, maybe your child's voice or something like that, they can [00:07:00] call and replicate that voice and try and trick someone into thinking that maybe they've got your child for ransom, and they need money.
That's just an example. Or they can call and replicate your voice maybe through your financial institution or another company. So, while AI is great, it also has its downfalls with the fraud world.
Jessica Quindlen: Yeah. Clearly. Very scary. All right, so LaShae, how can listeners report fraud?
LaShae Woodard: So, our members can call us, they can reach out to us through online banking, send us a message, just notify us if you believe fraud has occurred on your account. If you have an account or a loan or somewhere else, and you think fraud has occurred there and they have your information let us know. We can put alerts that your social may have been compromised or things like that.
We can help you protect your account here. So always reach out to your financial institution. We always recommend you file with local law enforcement and the credit bureaus as well. You can also go to the FTC and if [00:08:00] it's a scam you can report that to the FTC. Also, IC3 is another place you can report that.
And also, our Better Business Bureau here on the Better Business Bureau page, you can search a scam. So, let's say you're going to buy a puppy. You can search there to see if someone else has reported that, but you can also report your information. The best thing about it is not only can you search what other people have seen, but you then can lay the groundwork for someone to not get scammed the same way that you did. So it's a great resource as well.
Jessica Quindlen: That's great. Can you elaborate on IC3? That one I'm not familiar with.
Lisa Zurcher: Yeah, so IC3 is the internet crimes division of the FBI.
Jessica Quindlen: Oh, so fancy.
Lisa Zurcher: If you have an account takeover or any type of internet related crime, could be cryptocurrency anything part of the digital world, you can report that there.
And I don't know what happens [00:09:00] to it after it gets to them, but…
Jessica Quindlen: But it's the FBI so we can assume things are happening. And do they, they have a website that we can link to?
Lisa Zurcher: It's ic3.gov.
Jessica Quindlen: Oh, easy peasy. Anything else we'd like to add to safeguard finances in 2024?
LaShae Woodard: We always remind people if you get a phone call and you weren't expecting it and they're asking you to give personal information to ID yourself, feel free to say, “Hi Lisa. Can I get your extension and call you right back?” Lisa will give her extension. You call Ent at the number that you know belongs to that company and type in their extension and that's how you can verify that you really are talking to Lisa at Ent Credit Union.
Jessica Quindlen: I love that. Yes. And if there's any pushback to something like that, that's also a huge red flag.
Well, that brings us to the end of our show, Lisa, LaShae, thanks so much for being here. It was great to have you.
Lisa Zurcher: Thank you. I love being here.
Jessica Quindlen: Thank you for listening to Sound Cents from Ent Credit Union. Be sure to follow our podcast as well as rate and review us. I'm Jessica Quindlen. I will see you next week, same time, same place.
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