Dayna talks with Congressman Randy Weber about issues of concern to Southeast Texas. Plus Randy Rowe has tips on avoiding fraud.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Well, hello Southeast Texas. I hope you are enjoying this
wonderful holiday weekend. I know ours already started with my
granddaughter in the plastic pool in the backyard early this morning,
so I hope you are having some fun and some
joy with some family and friends as you celebrate this
holiday weekend. I also wanted to give you an update
(00:23):
on who's going to be on the show today. It's
an exciting show. I would love for you to call
in if you have any questions. Four nine eight nine
six five five eight four is the number here at KLVI,
and we are going to have our representative, our Congressman
Randy Weber is going to join us. There has been
(00:44):
so much activity going on, and he is going to
give us an update on what are some of the
things that are making progress, what do they see happening,
what are the things he's impacting and touching, and how
he sees things moving along in the future. Would love
to get his insight on what he sees coming and
(01:06):
what he thinks will happen. So any questions that you
have for Congressman Weber, give us a call and we
will get those answered. Also with us on the show,
today is Randy Rowe, and he is an executive vice
president and the chief risk officer at First Financial Bank.
And Randy is going to talk a little bit about
(01:29):
fraud and how they are seeing at the bank the
schemes of people who are trying to get your money,
both in the commercial side of business and also personal
some of the invoice fraud, check fraud, impersonation scams, investment scams.
You've seen it. You know, you get those text messages
(01:50):
from odd numbers saying hey click here, and or scare
tactics doing the same thing. So he is going to
be able to give us some insight into what are
some of the most recent fraud tactics that he's seeing
and what you can do to prevent yourself from being
a victim of that fraud. I think that's the key
(02:13):
is we know it's coming, and sometimes these people are
getting better and better at making it look real. So
what are some things we can look for to ensure
that we are not going to be a victim of
that fraud. I'd also like to give you an update
on what the market's doing here in Southeast Texas. I'll
tell you it's beginning to pick up a little while
(02:34):
we were hopeful it would pick up a lot more.
I think with the interest rate maintaining about the same,
we have seen some bit of a pickup, but not
at the rate of course we had three years ago,
but properties are moving. At this point in time, we
have about six and a half months of inventory, and
you know, we've talked in the past of what does
(02:56):
that mean if we have less than six months of
inventory five four, three months of inventory, which we had
in you know, twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two, that's
really a seller's market. That's where we're seeing sellers have
the advantage in the market and buyers competing and sometimes
(03:17):
paying more than asking price. When we get a market
that's over six months, when we get to a seven, eight,
nine to ten month inventory, that's where you're going to see.
It is a buyer's market where those prices tend to
start coming down for sellers, and you see buyers able
(03:38):
to negotiate things like closing cost assistance, they're able to
negotiate price. And so right now what we're seeing is
about a six and a half month average across the board.
Now that's an average across the entire MLS across every
county and across every price point. Now, what you may
need to know is that it's not six and a
(04:00):
half months of inventory in every single price range. So
if you're thinking about is it the right time for
me to buy or is it the right time for
me to sell, you can give our office a call
and we can meet with you personally at no cost
to you, just to say, Okay, what does that look
like for you? In your price point, Maybe there's only
(04:21):
two or three months of inventory, which means it is
a really good seller's market for you. But maybe in
your price point, if you're at a certain place and
there is ten months of inventory, you're going to have
to know to expect typically a little time on market,
and then prices may come down a little bit as well.
(04:42):
What we have seen in the last month or so
is we have seen year over year the prices come
down just a little. So we have seen a little
bit of a reduction in what we saw in twenty
twenty four versus what we're seeing in twenty twenty five,
but nothing major. You know, Southeast Texas, this has a
pretty stable real estate market, and if you're looking at
(05:04):
an investment, real estate is an incredible investment long term. Now,
if someone said, Hey, Dan, I want to buy a
house and then I'm moving in a year or two years,
I would give them a little bit of a heads
up that that might be challenging to resell and be
able to get back all of your money in a
year or two. But if you're going to be in
(05:25):
that house for five, six, seven, ten, twenty years, anyone
who has had property for that length of time will
tell you values have gone up, and they do annually
add about a three to six percent average rate. So
real estate is a great investment long term. Now, if
(05:46):
you have questions about is this the right time for
me to buy or to sell? Caller office. We have
someone answering the phones today four nine eight sixty six
eight three two six, and we will be glad to
schedule an appointment to sit down and visit with you,
give a consultation and let you know what do we
think the market is like for you. Well, when we
(06:10):
come back, we are going to visit with the Randy's
and get you some great insight and tips on what's
going on in our banking industry and then what's going
on in Congress. So don't go away. This is the
Dana Simmons Show. Welcome back. This is Dana Simmons with
the Dana Simmons Show. And I am honored to have
(06:31):
Congressman Randy Weber on the show with us today. And
Congressman Weber, I can't thank you enough for taking time
out of your busy holiday schedule and being willing to
connect with us and share with us some of the
amazing things that are going on in Congress. So welcome
(06:52):
to the show.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Well, thank you. You're a little scratchy, Dana, but I'm
glad to be here. We appreciate what KBIL does. And
you probably know this. My bride is from Marland, Texas.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Yes I do. She's a bulldog, and so am I.
I'm Zori said she's a bulldog, and so am I.
That's where I'm from.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
For you, rself, scratch you am I coming in? Clear?
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Toy you?
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Sor you're coming in? Great?
Speaker 2 (07:16):
I can I call you on a different phone please certainly?
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Yes, give us a call back and we'll connect you
right through.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Thanks.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Okay, Well, we're excited to have Congressman Weber on the show.
Shortly he'll give us a call back, so that he
can hear us better. But one of the things that
I'm so excited about is that he is going to
be visiting about the one big beautiful bill that's going
that's happening right now and all the ways that things
(07:47):
are changing for us, and some positive impact that's going
to have for us here in Southeast Texas locally locally,
but also nationally as well. So I'm looking forward to
connecting with Congressman Weber on doing that. I know he
is a big part of that. He is serving on
the Energy and Commerce Committee, and I know that's been
(08:09):
a very important role that he's played for us here
locally because you know as well as I do, that
is a huge business. It is what drives our Southeast
Texas area. It allows us to have all the wonderful
things we have with our big oil and petrochemical companies
(08:29):
that we have here that not only employ a lot
of people in Southeast Texas, but have you noticed how
much they give back? Every time I turn around, I
see something that says this was donated by Exon Mobile
and they put their stamp on it, or you know,
just so many different ways that we see them impacting
(08:53):
Southeast Texas in such a positive way that we are
so grateful and thankful for them, for those people who
are a part of that. And I think we have
Congressman Randy Weber back, Congressman Weber. Can you hear me
better now.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Yes, a little bit better. I don't know why I'm
so scratchy. I'm home here in Friendswood, so but I
guess this is the best we got.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Well, I can hear you clearly, and you're coming through
very well. So I just again wanted to say thank
you so much for taking your time out of this
holiday weekend to spend with us. And I know there
is so much that you have been working on. There
is a ton of amazing things happening. And one of
the things I know i'd love for you to share
(09:36):
about is the One Big Beautiful Bill, So talk a
little bit about what's going on.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Well, thank you for that. The One Big Beautiful Bill
is just that. Of course, we passed out of the
House after a lot of discussion and consideration and move
into shaking to try to make it work for everybody
could get behind the president's agenda. And so we've been
getting beat up by the Here's a news flash, our
friends on the other side saying we're trying to do
(10:02):
away with social purity and Medicaid and Medicare and all
that stuff. Nothing is further from the truth, Dana. We're
all about waste, fraud and abuse, and if Americans knew
what all has been going on. We've got people in
medicaid illegals from across the border. We've got peoples in
medicaid who are able by the young men that should
(10:23):
be out getting a job and buying their own insurance.
We've got people Dana coming from going to Louisiana and
Ragiter from medicaid and coming across the state line registering
in Texas. So it's the waste, fraud and abuse that
we're after, single moms with kids and that kind of stuff,
or some of our older folks that need help. That's
(10:43):
really what we're all about, obviously as a country nation
and the people, but not those who want to cheat
the system. Those are the ones we're trying to get
rid of.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
And I think one hundred percent or almost one hundred
percent of Americans would agree. You know, that's exactly why
I think President Trump was elected and the people are
behind that because they too see the waste. We hear
about the waste, and we're behind that happening as well.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Well, thank you a lot of people. Of course, you know,
my beautiful bride grew up over Knedling bull She said, well,
I mean Knedling a bulldog, and I grew up on
this side when we got married seventy We met in
seventy four. We got married in seventy six. I got
active in Republican Party politics when Reagan ran for reelection.
And we've had that term, Dana, for that's what's that
forty years, give or take waste fraud and abuse, and
(11:33):
the government we've got to cut out the waste fraud
and abuse. Now. I've spent four years in the Texas House,
I spent been in the US House now twelve years,
and we still never really addressed waste fraud and abuse.
And my golly, President Donald J. Trump came in here,
he said, we're doing it this time. So I'm I
(11:54):
would tell your great concitions, My constitutions are great listeners,
and thanks again for k I'll put the gets the
word out. Take heart ta be glad that you're actually
going to be seeing some of this. We're waste fraud
and you're just going to because you can't imagine, Dana,
the amount of money special programs that they were sending
to the country over in Africa to talking about transgenderism,
(12:17):
about about male and female all this stuff. Why are
we sending money to those countries to do this? So
it's it's been a long time coming.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Yeah, it's mind boggling, isn't it. It's like who would
even think that that would be happening, And so thankful
that you guys are discovering that and bringing it to
light so that the public can know what has been
going on. So I wanted to also ask about I
know that you serve on the Energy and Commerce Committee,
and I wanted to find out because that impacts us
(12:47):
here in Southeast Texas so greatly talk a little bit
about what's going on there.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Well, thanks for that, as you know, I'm sure your
listeners do. This being makes As Waterway is the second
largest waterway in the Gulf, taking only the Mississippi River,
and the Port of Beaumont moves more military personnel and
equipment out than any other port in the United States.
We have seven ports in District fourteen. Nobody else has
(13:13):
come close to the there have four ports that we
have seven, and we move sixty five percent the Nations jetpeel.
We produced eighty percent Nations military fuel, and the Port
of Beaumont moves military personnel and equipment out more than
anybody in the country. If I didn't say that already,
for us, it's a big deal. We have been working
on getting dredging because we want the bigger tankers to
(13:35):
be able to come in and to sell more energy
more lack of natural gas. We've got three energy plants
and more on the way, and so we want to
get the Army Corps of Engineers in there to dredge out.
It's about a one point I'm going from memory nowaday,
and so forgive me one point two billion dollar project,
I think. And the Great Subiniacious Navigation District has stepped
(13:57):
up and as the local sponsor was normally it's twenty
five percent, they had committed forty percent. I haven't seen
there's anywhere else in the district forty percent to get
that job done. So we're getting great things for the district.
We want to make sure that we continue to be
the energy capital, not just of Texas, but of the country.
And can I be real, honest, Dana, I didn't think
(14:20):
President Trump should change the name of the Gulf of
Mexico to the Gulf of America. I thought he should
have changed it to the Gulf of Texas.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
I like that. I like that idea. Well, I'll tell you,
I know, when you talk about the port, there are
some amazing things going on down there. Chris Fisher, who
is the director, has done an amazing job, and they
are growing. They are expanding and creating more jobs and
more ability for us to continue that growth and to
(14:51):
be that number one port for the military. So thank
you for what you do to continue to reinforce that
we need those things here and for you your abilities
to make Southeast Texas such a great place to live.
Another thing I wanted to ask you about. I know
it's important and on a lot of people's minds is
the state border security situation. Talk a little bit about
(15:14):
what you guys are doing with that.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Okay, I heard a little bit. What you said on
people's mind is what other situation?
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Yeah, the state border security?
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Border security?
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Yea, border security, Yes.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Yeah, thanks for that. My four years in the Texas House,
my second term, I was the vice chairman of the
Borders Committee two thousand eleven twenty twelve, and Dana, it
was bad back then, multiple multiple, multiple, multiple times, so
much worse, especially under I call him Obiden because I
think is Obama's third term. In December of the year
(15:49):
before last four, he left when three hundred thousand illegals
came across the Texas the Texas border one month. Think
about this, Dana, if twenty per cent of that of
that three hundred thousand number were kids aged five through
guess say, kindergarten through twelfth grade. If twenty percent of
those were kids you just brought in, it depends on
(16:11):
where in the country, where in the states you are.
You just brought in between ten to fifteen school districts.
Somebody has to pay to educate. Guess who that somebody is? Me? Yeah, yeah,
it's us, that's right. And so and then you also
have take into account our great doctors and nurses are
(16:31):
medical people. So they're going to come in no insurance,
They're going to go to these county hospitals, are going
to emergencies room, and they're going to get treated. And
so what's going to happen those doctors, nurses and those
medical facilities they got to raise their costs, you know,
their income because of spending all that time. Well guess
who's going to pay the extra high prices. We are
(16:52):
We cannot afford to be the charity for the world.
It's just that simple, yea.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
And I think that's the point. I love people well
and I want to help people, but you can't do
that for everyone, and you can't do it when they're
coming across illegally. I have so many friends who are
of Mexican descent. They come from Mexico, they came through
the right way, and they were able to earn their citizenship.
They are hard working Americans who are supporting their family,
(17:21):
who are paying their taxes, many whom have served in
our military. So it's the what I think needs to
be made clear is that it's not that we don't
love those people or care about them. It's just what
you just said, we cannot be the charity for every
single person across our world, and that.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
We did do it the legal way. And I'll give
the credit the state legislature, Governor Abbot credit. They went
out there and they put bob wire, they put floating
barriers in the in the river. If you remember they
did all this stuff. Then they stuff with more manpower.
They had even the soldiers they had you know, they
had text Department Public Safety, they had Department of Congressional
(18:05):
I mean CBP, and they had all kinds of overtime
they're paying. Now Texas was paying the run of that.
So we put into the bill twelve billion dollars. Governor
Abbott came and met with a bunch of US Texas
members I don't know, a month or two back, and
he laid out, we've got a flow chart and excel
(18:25):
files of all the money the state has spent twelve
billion with the b dollars. He said, the federal government
needs to reimburse that, and we said, absolutely they do.
So we put it in the bill, and then the
Senate complained and they took it out. But Speaker Mike Johnson,
to his credit, did what's called the Manager's Amendment the
night before the bill went out, where he put it
(18:47):
back in. So it's in the bill. If the Senate
doesn't cut it out, we're going to be able to
get reimburse to Texas for all the money that we
have spent. Really, and you probably know this, Mexico, United States,
the border is about nineteen hundred and I don't know
thirty seven or sixty seven miles. Texas has about two
(19:07):
thirds of that, which will be like what twelve hundred miles.
We were protecting the bulk of the United States and
we need to be reimbursed with that.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Absolutely. I love that you brought that up. But one
of the things that I know that you've also done
is when National Police Week you were able to attend
some ceremonies and to both pay tribute to those who
were in blue, and just wanted to hear your thoughts
on how that went.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Well, it's a great tribute to our men and blue
and men and women in blue. And I will tell
you this if you've been around me free length to time.
Of course, my beautiful bride taught fourth grade twenty seven years.
My favorite fourth grade teacher. By the way, well in
fourth grade was two of the best years of my
(19:56):
life too.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Got to all ties.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
All that to say, you know, I've been saying this
when I speak to people, I will say, look, here's
the thing. We don't pay the men and women who
are protecting us, whether it's military, whether it's men and
women in blue. We will pay them a mere sumids
and I don't know, fifty sixty seventy thousand dollars a year.
Our teachers, you know, sixty seventy if they're lucky a year.
(20:24):
But we will pay America as whole. I say this
tongue in cheek. Will pay our professional athletes, and I
use the word professional very loosely. We'll pay those athletes
two million, seven million, twenty seven million a year. And
we will pay our professional entertainers actors. Again I use
the word professional loosely. They can get fifteen twenty thirty
(20:44):
fifty thousand dollars a year. Where are our private warranties?
We are totally out of sync. It ought to be
for our men and women in blue. Ought to be
for our teachers, those who educate the next generation, and
those who protect us all our country's got it backwards.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Absolutely completely agree with everything you just said. Well, Congressman Weber,
I just can't thank you enough. Any parting thoughts that
you have that you want to make sure our listeners
know before you before.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
You leave, well take heart, Keith faith because we're working hard.
Everybody that we know wants to get behind Trump's agenda
and the tariffs. I'm going to go to the teriffs
for a minute now. Sure I haven't read his book,
Art of the Deal, but I'm told he pushes out
as hard and fast and furious as he can when
he's trying to make a deal, and then he can
(21:33):
roll it back a little bit at a time. And
I think what you're seeing with the tariffs is that
we've been we have been people have been taking advantage
of America on the trade scene for way too long.
Donald Trump said he's going to do something about it.
He's doing it. So I think you're going to see
trade come back. We're actually talking about bringing ship building
back to the United States the coast of Texas, believe
(21:55):
it or not. So we're going to be what was
the little song, happy Days or here again. Yeah, as
soon as we get get this through the Senate and
get and the President to sign it, we're rocking and rolling.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Absolutely. That sounds wonderful. For well, thank you all that
for all that you do to represent our area and
to make sure that we are a part of all
of those conversations, and you are making sure that we
are at the front, forefront of things that we need here.
So thank you. Congressman Weber. Such a and honor to
have you on the show today.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Well, thank you, Dan, thank you for what y'all do.
We'll talk again.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Okay, thanks again, not by now. Well, we just want
to say thank you guys for being a part of
what Congressman Weber is doing. I hope you enjoyed his
conversation of all that he is participating in to to
bring to Southeast Texas the things that we need. And
when we come back, we're going to shift gears. But
(22:52):
it's another Randy, So it's the Randy Show. Today. We're
going to be visiting with Randy Rowe, who is the
cheap risk officer and the execs to vice president at
First Financial, and he's going to be talking to us
a little bit about fraud. So don't go away, come
right back. This is the Dana Simmons Show. Welcome back.
(23:14):
This is Dana Simmons and we have been having a
really wonderful show. Actually, Congressman Weber was on the show
in the first half. Gave us some updates on what's
going on on the Big Beautiful Bill and some things
that are happening to grow Southeast Texas, impacts on the
port on the Sabine River. So so many good things happening.
(23:36):
If you miss that, podcast will be posted next week
and you can go back and listen to that. We
are so thankful to have a congressman who is willing
to jump on the radio with me on a Saturday
of a holiday weekend, so very personal. Really appreciate that
he's willing to do that, So thank you again, Congressman Weber.
(23:57):
We have another Randy on the show with us. It
is Randy Rowe. He is the executive vice president and
chief risk officer at First Financial Bank Shares. And again,
I'm so nice to have Randy join me on a
holiday weekend to be willing to jump on the radio
show and give us some great tips and information and
(24:19):
really educate us on what he is seeing and what's happening.
So Randy, thank you so much for joining me today.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
So it's my pleasure. Dana, I'm like you, it was
good to hear from Congressman Weber. He's doing good work
and he's got a very hard job he does.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Yeah, so grateful. Well, I am excited for you to
kind of share information and shed light on some of
the fraud that we're seeing and The reason we want
to do this is to help people, educate people and
help them be prepared to prevent it from happening to themselves,
because fraudsters are getting smarter and smarter and using different
(24:57):
tactics and techniques to be able to get your information
in your money. So let's get started with what what
do you think is some of the most important topics
that people should know?
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Well, Danny, we're seeing a real increase in impersonation scams.
I don't think there's anyone listening today that has not
received a text message saying that they have a past
to hold charge. I mean that they're just impersonating the
toll authority. We see it because they impersonate our bank.
(25:34):
And you know that people tend to believe that text
messages and emails are authentic when they aren't. So you
know the best thing to do is don't panic because
most of these text messages and emails are designed to
create fear and anxiety. You know, it might say that
(25:56):
that you just use your debit card or credit card
at Walmart for five hundred dollars. You know, if you
get that text message, you kind of lose your mind
because you stop thinking and you panic, and so you
know the biggest things, Just slow down. Just know that
these these people are out there sending these types of
(26:16):
of of text messages, and you know most of them
are designed to either get your debt better credit card
or you know, have you withdraw money or transfer money
to them.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
So you know, it's happened to me, It's also happened
to me personally. With a phone call. I had the
Jefferson County Sheriff's Office number in my phone and and
so my phone rang and I answered it, and it
says Jefferson County Sheriff's Office. And the person on the
other line started talking to me about that I had
(26:56):
tickets or can't you remember the exact thing that he said,
But there was a warrant out for my arrest and
that if I didn't pay on you know, give him
my credit card information over the phone, that they were
going to come and arrest me. And I'll tell you
he got very aggressive and tried to instill fear into
(27:18):
me to make me give him, you know, my credit
card information to pay over the phone. Well, I just said, well,
you have my phone number, if you know where I live,
you can just come get me. You know, come pick
me up, is what I said. But for a lot
of people, let me just say that would be that
would be scary to think, oh, did I have a
(27:39):
ticket I didn't pay that I forgot about, you know,
and and now there's a warrant out for my arrest.
It's things like that. You're exactly right that they want
to instill fear to make you act immediately.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
That's right, you know, they put pressure on you. Yeah,
and like in that case, obviously he became very aggressive
because he you know, he's just trying to make you
stop thinking. Yeah, And you know, in those kinds of cases,
you just hang the phone up and you call the
sheriff's department or you call the toll authority, or you
call your bank and you say, hey, I've got this
(28:12):
text or I got this call. This is authentic.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
You know.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
The really the really sad ones are what we call
grandparents scams, or you know, you get a call or
a text message from somebody that says one of your
loved ones has been in an accident or they need
Those are the ones where you where you really lose
your mind and you have to kind of gain your composure.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Right right, Well, I know that impersonation scams is one.
What's another scam that you're seeing?
Speaker 3 (28:40):
Well, you know, an impersonation scam is a very broad
broad topic. You know, with businesses, we see we continue
to see a lot of invoice fraud. In other words, you'll,
I think anyone in business receives or sends invoices to
email or texts, and you know, somebody gets their email
(29:02):
compromise and they see those invoices have even been sent
or received, they can change the invoice or the change
or they'll send you another message saying, hey we change banks.
You need you need to pay you know this, uh
this invoice and another bank. And people get those and
they again they they seem to think that email is
(29:25):
a secure communication channel. It's not. I mean, you can't
trust things that you like that that you get through emails.
And so the best thing to do is, you know,
call the vendor. And I know at the bank, if
I get invoices through email, and if I ever receive
a payment instruction change, I picked the phone up and
(29:48):
call my relationship manager or whoever with that vendor and say, hey,
I just got this, this is legit. And before I
even transfer that over to our accounts payable groups that
they can change payment instructions. You just have to You
can't trust anything online.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Anymore, well, because an email can be copied exactly. We've
had that same thing happen with wiring instructions, where the
title company used to just send an email wiring instructions.
Someone intercepted that made the email look exactly like the
previous email to say, hey, the wiring instructions have changed.
(30:22):
Please see the attached and it's not actually the title company,
but everything in the email, even the email address, it's
just off one letter. Everything looks exactly the same, and
so you're exactly right. At that point in time. It's
a matter of pick up the phone and call and
don't call the number that call the number you know
is the title company, and say, hey, I'm just confirming.
(30:46):
But these days you can't even do that anymore. They
send secure wiring instructions because that was happening so often.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
Right, Yeah, we've seen some of those situations, and it's
a very bad day when you show up to closing
and they don't have your Yeah, but yeah, you always
have to look at those email addresses and confirm that
it is it's not a spoofed email or if it's
if it if it does come from that organization, you
can pick the phone up and call somebody and tell them, hey,
(31:15):
I just got this. We get you know, at the bank,
we can periodically we'll receive emails from our clients and
we could tell that their emails will compromise because they
want people set up in their online banking or you know,
something like that so they can start wiring funds and
so you know, at First Financial, we you know, we
put a really high priority on security awareness training. So
(31:37):
if there's any businesses out there and you've got soul employees,
I mean, you need to you need to make sure
everyone is paying attention and understands that you can't just
pay invoices or change payment instructions based on an email.
You have to verify it through what we call them
out of band or an alternative communication and method. If
(32:01):
you get it in an email, phone you know, called
the company, yeah, directly.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
And I know one of the things that First Financial
does a lot of is fraud lunch and learns and
if there is a facility that needs information about, you know,
how to avoid fraud. We thought we were doing everything
in my company, and so I brought my accounts manager
with me and we went and we still learned something
at one of those fraud lunch and learns. So if
(32:28):
if you have a company, a large company and that
needs that sort of training, I know First Financial has
done it for like rotary clubs, for churches, for all
kinds of different institutions to help them understand what are
some of the things you need to have in place
so that that doesn't happen to you.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
Yeah, we do a lot of them. I was in
mid loath End on Wednesday in Clevebland last week doing
these and I know they have a lot down Plane
Bailey President down in Orange that they do a lot of. Yeah,
but you know, some of the things if there's a
couple of things that if people would just pay attention,
(33:10):
you know, one of the biggest indicators of a phishing
email is the overuse of the word kindly right now
instead of please, and kindly is a perfectly lovely word.
It's a sweet word, it's a great word. But we
don't use that in the United States. We use the
word please. People who really use that are people who
(33:31):
speak a formal dialect of British English. And so if
you think if people in India are notably Nigeria, who
are very good at this, they use that word. I
know the people up in the Northeast use this use
kindly quite a bit, but you know, we're not in
the Northeast. I'm just saying, but if it's an overuse
of that word, that should be a really big red flag. Also,
(33:54):
if they want you to pay in USD instead of
using the dollar sign, that's a huge red flag. We
don't do that. We use the dollar sign for cash.
You know, if you have a plumber and he said
you an invoice, he's not going to tell you to
send me five hundred usd's I want to say dollar
time five hundred. Right, these are people that aren't in
(34:14):
the United States, and that's a huge red flag when
you see these.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Right, Well, these are such great tips. And Randy, when
we come back after this break, I want to talk
a little bit about check fraud because that's also another
challenge that you guys see and there are all kinds
of ways that people are managing to intercept checks and
we'll have you talk through what we can do and
how to do that. But this has been so educational
(34:39):
thus far. Looking forward to the next segment. So this
is Dana Simmons. Don't go away, you don't want to
miss it. We'll be right back. Welcome back. This is
Dana Simmons and I'm joined today by Randy Rowe, who
is the executive vice president and chief risk officer for
First Financial Bank Shares. And Randy, we've been talking about
(35:00):
lot of fraud and scams, and you talked about the
impersonation scams where you know, you get a text message
and it says you have a toll Most of us,
you said, have gotten that, Yes, And there are lots
of other scams as well. And then the invoice fraud
where someone says, hey, we're changing our payment, send the invoice. Uh,
(35:21):
send your payment to this new payment area. But there's
also check fraud, and you guys are seeing a lot
of changes in check fraud. But then I want you
to talk about what are some ways that we can
avoid the challenge with check fraud because I know in
my company we've changed how we do things because of
(35:42):
check fraud.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
Yeah, tech fraud is increasing and in the banking industry,
if you were to ask us ten years ago, if
we had had checks today, we would say no, people,
you know, we'll move, we won't have as many checks.
But businesses continue to write a lot of checks. We
have a lot of consumers who write checks. I personally
write checks periodically. But the biggest thing today that you
(36:09):
have to remember is you don't want to mail checks. Unfortunately,
the US Postal Service has a security issue. And you
know there's good people at the Postal Service. I know
a lot of them. They work hard, but the bad
guys are assaulting postal carriers to steal a key off
(36:29):
of them that they call them arrow key, and this
arrow key will open those blue mail receptacles that you
might see on a street corner and they go through
those and they find what is a check, and they
might steal the check and they sell the checks online.
We monitor for checks that are being sold online to
notify our customers. But the main thing is is don't
(36:52):
mail check if you don't have to, and if you do,
call your bank and sign up for what we call
positive pay. Positive pay is available to commercial customers and
it's essentially you tell us what check you wrote, the amount,
the number who you made the checkout to, and then
when that check comes through you and if it's if
it's not the check you wrote, you just say return
(37:16):
and it goes back. And and we have a system
also for a c H is if you use a
c H.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
Yeah. And one of the things I was shocked by
on check fraud is the term washing and how people
are able to do that with the check where they
maybe go to your your mailbox, pull your your checks
out that you're mailing to your to your vendors, and
then they're able to actually wash the name of the
(37:45):
two in the amount off of there in order to
make the checkout to whomever they want.
Speaker 3 (37:51):
Yeah, that's the Yeah, that's called check washing. They just
use acetone or something to clear that. Yeah. They we
see a lot of that. And that's where positive pay
comes in because if they change the amount, it flags it.
You have paye match, then it flags it. They will
also set up a assumed name certificate and go into
(38:13):
another bank and open an account deposit that in the
name of the check paye and then the deposit the
check at a bank that may not have as good
of controls and steal money that way. Or what we've
seen lately a few times is that they'll they'll make
a copy of the check and then they'll put the
(38:34):
check back in the envelope and send it on, send
it on its way, and then they create checks that look,
you know, with the same information, you can buy a
check stock from you know, office depot or Staples or
any of those places, and they play and they print
checks and negotiate these checks. So, uh, you know, the
moral of the story is don't don't mail checks if
(38:56):
you don't have to. And you know this is graduation
season and a lot of people are mailing checks to graduates.
Is just just be aware and watch your account very
closely if you do that.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Yeah, So, Randy, what are what are the top tips
that you could give our listeners to help them prevent
these things happening to them. I know one of the
things that you talked about is positive pay, and I
know in our office with we are with First Financial
and that's exactly one of the things that we utilize
(39:29):
is positive pay. But what are some other things, whether
it's a business or someone who it's their personal checking,
what are the most important things that they need to
look for to protect themselves.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
Well, again, don't put checks in those blue mail receptacles.
You know, if you're going to mail a check, carry
it inside the post office to mail it. Sign up
for electronic statements so you get your bank statement electronically
instead of through the mail, because they steal those also.
And when they steal those, you know what's in your
(40:03):
bank statement a copy of your check, right so they
they We've seen images of checks deposited through remote deposit, uh,
you know, like mobile deposits and things like that. You
just just be aware that this is going on. Just
be aware that when you write a check, all of
(40:24):
your account information is being presented to a third party.
And sometimes we just have to do it right. I
mean I write text to church, I write text to
for charitable donations and that sort of thing. But you
just have to watch your account. Always watch your account. Yeah,
the biggest that's the biggest stal and.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
Even with credit card situation. So for for us, I
know that my husband Ken has something set up where
really every time something comes through where I've used even
the credit card, it'll it alerts him and then over
a certain amount it alerts him so he's able to say, hey, Dana,
did you you know was that you who did that?
(41:05):
And I'm able to say yeah, yeah, that was me.
Then he knows everything I'm doing, so you know, it's
helpful and it's not so helpful.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
So yeah, that's the beauty of online banking today. I
mean there's so many things that this technology can help
you monitor, like debit card alerts and credit card alerts
and and external transfers that may be set up or
if your phone number. So I'd encourage everyone to set
(41:35):
up online banking and monitor their account because you've got
the same information that we have at your fingertips. I mean,
it's a and it's such a great tool. And mobile banking,
you know, that's our We have an unbelievable number of
people logging in every day through mobile banking. They're checking
things that you can turn your debit card on and off.
(41:57):
I mean there's a lot of great security features that
you can use just the online banking channels.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
Yeah, that's that's so many good products that First Financial offers,
and that's why we are cheerleaders for you because we
are a part of First Financial and love everything that
you guys provide. Any parting thoughts, Randy as we wrap
up the.
Speaker 3 (42:21):
Show, Well, the only one I need to mention very quickly,
any kind of investment scams for a for a person.
You know, we see there's this you can you can
google or search for pig butchering. It's a horrible sounding name,
but it was created over an Asia where they they
trick you into making small investments and they will even
(42:44):
provide a fake website for you to see your quote
investment grow and and you get sucked into it and
then send tremendous amounts of money and then they just
walk away. I mean, it's it's a it's a terrible
and that the reason they at pick the trees they
can financially fat you up and then and then but
(43:05):
I guess at the end, but you know, before I leave,
everyone on this call needs to freeze their credit. Okay,
that's the that's the h You just need to You
just need to understand the bad guys probably already have
your personal information. They already know where you live, they
got your driver's license and solid security. You need to
freeze your credit with the major credit reporting agencies because
(43:26):
if they try to commit idea any theft, they're going
to try to get a credit card or something from
someone that's going to run your credit report. If your
credit report's frozen. They can't run it. It's the best
protection you have.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
Ray, that is such great advice. Thank you so much
for giving us such good information and ending it with
I think, which is a great thing for all of
us to do. I hope you all have a wonderful
holiday weekend. It's been a pleasure having you all on
the show, and we'll see you again next week.
Well, hello Southeast Texas. I hope you are enjoying this
wonderful holiday weekend. I know ours already started with my
granddaughter in the plastic pool in the backyard early this morning,
so I hope you are having some fun and some
joy with some family and friends as you celebrate this
holiday weekend. I also wanted to give you an update
(00:23):
on who's going to be on the show today. It's
an exciting show. I would love for you to call
in if you have any questions. Four nine eight nine
six five five eight four is the number here at KLVI,
and we are going to have our representative, our Congressman
Randy Weber is going to join us. There has been
(00:44):
so much activity going on, and he is going to
give us an update on what are some of the
things that are making progress, what do they see happening,
what are the things he's impacting and touching, and how
he sees things moving along in the future. Would love
to get his insight on what he sees coming and
(01:06):
what he thinks will happen. So any questions that you
have for Congressman Weber, give us a call and we
will get those answered. Also with us on the show,
today is Randy Rowe, and he is an executive vice
president and the chief risk officer at First Financial Bank.
And Randy is going to talk a little bit about
(01:29):
fraud and how they are seeing at the bank the
schemes of people who are trying to get your money,
both in the commercial side of business and also personal
some of the invoice fraud, check fraud, impersonation scams, investment scams.
You've seen it. You know, you get those text messages
(01:50):
from odd numbers saying hey click here, and or scare
tactics doing the same thing. So he is going to
be able to give us some insight into what are
some of the most recent fraud tactics that he's seeing
and what you can do to prevent yourself from being
a victim of that fraud. I think that's the key
(02:13):
is we know it's coming, and sometimes these people are
getting better and better at making it look real. So
what are some things we can look for to ensure
that we are not going to be a victim of
that fraud. I'd also like to give you an update
on what the market's doing here in Southeast Texas. I'll
tell you it's beginning to pick up a little while
(02:34):
we were hopeful it would pick up a lot more.
I think with the interest rate maintaining about the same,
we have seen some bit of a pickup, but not
at the rate of course we had three years ago,
but properties are moving. At this point in time, we
have about six and a half months of inventory, and
you know, we've talked in the past of what does
(02:56):
that mean if we have less than six months of
inventory five four, three months of inventory, which we had
in you know, twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two, that's
really a seller's market. That's where we're seeing sellers have
the advantage in the market and buyers competing and sometimes
(03:17):
paying more than asking price. When we get a market
that's over six months, when we get to a seven, eight,
nine to ten month inventory, that's where you're going to see.
It is a buyer's market where those prices tend to
start coming down for sellers, and you see buyers able
(03:38):
to negotiate things like closing cost assistance, they're able to
negotiate price. And so right now what we're seeing is
about a six and a half month average across the board.
Now that's an average across the entire MLS across every
county and across every price point. Now, what you may
need to know is that it's not six and a
(04:00):
half months of inventory in every single price range. So
if you're thinking about is it the right time for
me to buy or is it the right time for
me to sell, you can give our office a call
and we can meet with you personally at no cost
to you, just to say, Okay, what does that look
like for you? In your price point, Maybe there's only
(04:21):
two or three months of inventory, which means it is
a really good seller's market for you. But maybe in
your price point, if you're at a certain place and
there is ten months of inventory, you're going to have
to know to expect typically a little time on market,
and then prices may come down a little bit as well.
(04:42):
What we have seen in the last month or so
is we have seen year over year the prices come
down just a little. So we have seen a little
bit of a reduction in what we saw in twenty
twenty four versus what we're seeing in twenty twenty five,
but nothing major. You know, Southeast Texas, this has a
pretty stable real estate market, and if you're looking at
(05:04):
an investment, real estate is an incredible investment long term. Now,
if someone said, Hey, Dan, I want to buy a
house and then I'm moving in a year or two years,
I would give them a little bit of a heads
up that that might be challenging to resell and be
able to get back all of your money in a
year or two. But if you're going to be in
(05:25):
that house for five, six, seven, ten, twenty years, anyone
who has had property for that length of time will
tell you values have gone up, and they do annually
add about a three to six percent average rate. So
real estate is a great investment long term. Now, if
(05:46):
you have questions about is this the right time for
me to buy or to sell? Caller office. We have
someone answering the phones today four nine eight sixty six
eight three two six, and we will be glad to
schedule an appointment to sit down and visit with you,
give a consultation and let you know what do we
think the market is like for you. Well, when we
(06:10):
come back, we are going to visit with the Randy's
and get you some great insight and tips on what's
going on in our banking industry and then what's going
on in Congress. So don't go away. This is the
Dana Simmons Show. Welcome back. This is Dana Simmons with
the Dana Simmons Show. And I am honored to have
(06:31):
Congressman Randy Weber on the show with us today. And
Congressman Weber, I can't thank you enough for taking time
out of your busy holiday schedule and being willing to
connect with us and share with us some of the
amazing things that are going on in Congress. So welcome
(06:52):
to the show.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Well, thank you. You're a little scratchy, Dana, but I'm
glad to be here. We appreciate what KBIL does. And
you probably know this. My bride is from Marland, Texas.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Yes I do. She's a bulldog, and so am I.
I'm Zori said she's a bulldog, and so am I.
That's where I'm from.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
For you, rself, scratch you am I coming in? Clear?
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Toy you?
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Sor you're coming in? Great?
Speaker 2 (07:16):
I can I call you on a different phone please certainly?
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Yes, give us a call back and we'll connect you
right through.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Thanks.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Okay, Well, we're excited to have Congressman Weber on the show.
Shortly he'll give us a call back, so that he
can hear us better. But one of the things that
I'm so excited about is that he is going to
be visiting about the one big beautiful bill that's going
that's happening right now and all the ways that things
(07:47):
are changing for us, and some positive impact that's going
to have for us here in Southeast Texas locally locally,
but also nationally as well. So I'm looking forward to
connecting with Congressman Weber on doing that. I know he
is a big part of that. He is serving on
the Energy and Commerce Committee, and I know that's been
(08:09):
a very important role that he's played for us here
locally because you know as well as I do, that
is a huge business. It is what drives our Southeast
Texas area. It allows us to have all the wonderful
things we have with our big oil and petrochemical companies
(08:29):
that we have here that not only employ a lot
of people in Southeast Texas, but have you noticed how
much they give back? Every time I turn around, I
see something that says this was donated by Exon Mobile
and they put their stamp on it, or you know,
just so many different ways that we see them impacting
(08:53):
Southeast Texas in such a positive way that we are
so grateful and thankful for them, for those people who
are a part of that. And I think we have
Congressman Randy Weber back, Congressman Weber. Can you hear me
better now.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Yes, a little bit better. I don't know why I'm
so scratchy. I'm home here in Friendswood, so but I
guess this is the best we got.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Well, I can hear you clearly, and you're coming through
very well. So I just again wanted to say thank
you so much for taking your time out of this
holiday weekend to spend with us. And I know there
is so much that you have been working on. There
is a ton of amazing things happening. And one of
the things I know i'd love for you to share
(09:36):
about is the One Big Beautiful Bill, So talk a
little bit about what's going on.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Well, thank you for that. The One Big Beautiful Bill
is just that. Of course, we passed out of the
House after a lot of discussion and consideration and move
into shaking to try to make it work for everybody
could get behind the president's agenda. And so we've been
getting beat up by the Here's a news flash, our
friends on the other side saying we're trying to do
(10:02):
away with social purity and Medicaid and Medicare and all
that stuff. Nothing is further from the truth, Dana. We're
all about waste, fraud and abuse, and if Americans knew
what all has been going on. We've got people in
medicaid illegals from across the border. We've got peoples in
medicaid who are able by the young men that should
(10:23):
be out getting a job and buying their own insurance.
We've got people Dana coming from going to Louisiana and
Ragiter from medicaid and coming across the state line registering
in Texas. So it's the waste, fraud and abuse that
we're after, single moms with kids and that kind of stuff,
or some of our older folks that need help. That's
(10:43):
really what we're all about, obviously as a country nation
and the people, but not those who want to cheat
the system. Those are the ones we're trying to get
rid of.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
And I think one hundred percent or almost one hundred
percent of Americans would agree. You know, that's exactly why
I think President Trump was elected and the people are
behind that because they too see the waste. We hear
about the waste, and we're behind that happening as well.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Well, thank you a lot of people. Of course, you know,
my beautiful bride grew up over Knedling bull She said, well,
I mean Knedling a bulldog, and I grew up on
this side when we got married seventy We met in
seventy four. We got married in seventy six. I got
active in Republican Party politics when Reagan ran for reelection.
And we've had that term, Dana, for that's what's that
forty years, give or take waste fraud and abuse, and
(11:33):
the government we've got to cut out the waste fraud
and abuse. Now. I've spent four years in the Texas House,
I spent been in the US House now twelve years,
and we still never really addressed waste fraud and abuse.
And my golly, President Donald J. Trump came in here,
he said, we're doing it this time. So I'm I
(11:54):
would tell your great concitions, My constitutions are great listeners,
and thanks again for k I'll put the gets the
word out. Take heart ta be glad that you're actually
going to be seeing some of this. We're waste fraud
and you're just going to because you can't imagine, Dana,
the amount of money special programs that they were sending
to the country over in Africa to talking about transgenderism,
(12:17):
about about male and female all this stuff. Why are
we sending money to those countries to do this? So
it's it's been a long time coming.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Yeah, it's mind boggling, isn't it. It's like who would
even think that that would be happening, And so thankful
that you guys are discovering that and bringing it to
light so that the public can know what has been
going on. So I wanted to also ask about I
know that you serve on the Energy and Commerce Committee,
and I wanted to find out because that impacts us
(12:47):
here in Southeast Texas so greatly talk a little bit
about what's going on there.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Well, thanks for that, as you know, I'm sure your
listeners do. This being makes As Waterway is the second
largest waterway in the Gulf, taking only the Mississippi River,
and the Port of Beaumont moves more military personnel and
equipment out than any other port in the United States.
We have seven ports in District fourteen. Nobody else has
(13:13):
come close to the there have four ports that we
have seven, and we move sixty five percent the Nations jetpeel.
We produced eighty percent Nations military fuel, and the Port
of Beaumont moves military personnel and equipment out more than
anybody in the country. If I didn't say that already,
for us, it's a big deal. We have been working
on getting dredging because we want the bigger tankers to
(13:35):
be able to come in and to sell more energy
more lack of natural gas. We've got three energy plants
and more on the way, and so we want to
get the Army Corps of Engineers in there to dredge out.
It's about a one point I'm going from memory nowaday,
and so forgive me one point two billion dollar project,
I think. And the Great Subiniacious Navigation District has stepped
(13:57):
up and as the local sponsor was normally it's twenty
five percent, they had committed forty percent. I haven't seen
there's anywhere else in the district forty percent to get
that job done. So we're getting great things for the district.
We want to make sure that we continue to be
the energy capital, not just of Texas, but of the country.
And can I be real, honest, Dana, I didn't think
(14:20):
President Trump should change the name of the Gulf of
Mexico to the Gulf of America. I thought he should
have changed it to the Gulf of Texas.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
I like that. I like that idea. Well, I'll tell you,
I know, when you talk about the port, there are
some amazing things going on down there. Chris Fisher, who
is the director, has done an amazing job, and they
are growing. They are expanding and creating more jobs and
more ability for us to continue that growth and to
(14:51):
be that number one port for the military. So thank
you for what you do to continue to reinforce that
we need those things here and for you your abilities
to make Southeast Texas such a great place to live.
Another thing I wanted to ask you about. I know
it's important and on a lot of people's minds is
the state border security situation. Talk a little bit about
(15:14):
what you guys are doing with that.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Okay, I heard a little bit. What you said on
people's mind is what other situation?
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Yeah, the state border security?
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Border security?
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Yea, border security, Yes.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Yeah, thanks for that. My four years in the Texas House,
my second term, I was the vice chairman of the
Borders Committee two thousand eleven twenty twelve, and Dana, it
was bad back then, multiple multiple, multiple, multiple times, so
much worse, especially under I call him Obiden because I
think is Obama's third term. In December of the year
(15:49):
before last four, he left when three hundred thousand illegals
came across the Texas the Texas border one month. Think
about this, Dana, if twenty per cent of that of
that three hundred thousand number were kids aged five through
guess say, kindergarten through twelfth grade. If twenty percent of
those were kids you just brought in, it depends on
(16:11):
where in the country, where in the states you are.
You just brought in between ten to fifteen school districts.
Somebody has to pay to educate. Guess who that somebody is? Me? Yeah, yeah,
it's us, that's right. And so and then you also
have take into account our great doctors and nurses are
(16:31):
medical people. So they're going to come in no insurance,
They're going to go to these county hospitals, are going
to emergencies room, and they're going to get treated. And
so what's going to happen those doctors, nurses and those
medical facilities they got to raise their costs, you know,
their income because of spending all that time. Well guess
who's going to pay the extra high prices. We are
(16:52):
We cannot afford to be the charity for the world.
It's just that simple, yea.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
And I think that's the point. I love people well
and I want to help people, but you can't do
that for everyone, and you can't do it when they're
coming across illegally. I have so many friends who are
of Mexican descent. They come from Mexico, they came through
the right way, and they were able to earn their citizenship.
They are hard working Americans who are supporting their family,
(17:21):
who are paying their taxes, many whom have served in
our military. So it's the what I think needs to
be made clear is that it's not that we don't
love those people or care about them. It's just what
you just said, we cannot be the charity for every
single person across our world, and that.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
We did do it the legal way. And I'll give
the credit the state legislature, Governor Abbot credit. They went
out there and they put bob wire, they put floating
barriers in the in the river. If you remember they
did all this stuff. Then they stuff with more manpower.
They had even the soldiers they had you know, they
had text Department Public Safety, they had Department of Congressional
(18:05):
I mean CBP, and they had all kinds of overtime
they're paying. Now Texas was paying the run of that.
So we put into the bill twelve billion dollars. Governor
Abbott came and met with a bunch of US Texas
members I don't know, a month or two back, and
he laid out, we've got a flow chart and excel
(18:25):
files of all the money the state has spent twelve
billion with the b dollars. He said, the federal government
needs to reimburse that, and we said, absolutely they do.
So we put it in the bill, and then the
Senate complained and they took it out. But Speaker Mike Johnson,
to his credit, did what's called the Manager's Amendment the
night before the bill went out, where he put it
(18:47):
back in. So it's in the bill. If the Senate
doesn't cut it out, we're going to be able to
get reimburse to Texas for all the money that we
have spent. Really, and you probably know this, Mexico, United States,
the border is about nineteen hundred and I don't know
thirty seven or sixty seven miles. Texas has about two
(19:07):
thirds of that, which will be like what twelve hundred miles.
We were protecting the bulk of the United States and
we need to be reimbursed with that.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Absolutely. I love that you brought that up. But one
of the things that I know that you've also done
is when National Police Week you were able to attend
some ceremonies and to both pay tribute to those who
were in blue, and just wanted to hear your thoughts
on how that went.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Well, it's a great tribute to our men and blue
and men and women in blue. And I will tell
you this if you've been around me free length to time.
Of course, my beautiful bride taught fourth grade twenty seven years.
My favorite fourth grade teacher. By the way, well in
fourth grade was two of the best years of my
(19:56):
life too.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Got to all ties.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
All that to say, you know, I've been saying this
when I speak to people, I will say, look, here's
the thing. We don't pay the men and women who
are protecting us, whether it's military, whether it's men and
women in blue. We will pay them a mere sumids
and I don't know, fifty sixty seventy thousand dollars a year.
Our teachers, you know, sixty seventy if they're lucky a year.
(20:24):
But we will pay America as whole. I say this
tongue in cheek. Will pay our professional athletes, and I
use the word professional very loosely. We'll pay those athletes
two million, seven million, twenty seven million a year. And
we will pay our professional entertainers actors. Again I use
the word professional loosely. They can get fifteen twenty thirty
(20:44):
fifty thousand dollars a year. Where are our private warranties?
We are totally out of sync. It ought to be
for our men and women in blue. Ought to be
for our teachers, those who educate the next generation, and
those who protect us all our country's got it backwards.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Absolutely completely agree with everything you just said. Well, Congressman Weber,
I just can't thank you enough. Any parting thoughts that
you have that you want to make sure our listeners
know before you before.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
You leave, well take heart, Keith faith because we're working hard.
Everybody that we know wants to get behind Trump's agenda
and the tariffs. I'm going to go to the teriffs
for a minute now. Sure I haven't read his book,
Art of the Deal, but I'm told he pushes out
as hard and fast and furious as he can when
he's trying to make a deal, and then he can
(21:33):
roll it back a little bit at a time. And
I think what you're seeing with the tariffs is that
we've been we have been people have been taking advantage
of America on the trade scene for way too long.
Donald Trump said he's going to do something about it.
He's doing it. So I think you're going to see
trade come back. We're actually talking about bringing ship building
back to the United States the coast of Texas, believe
(21:55):
it or not. So we're going to be what was
the little song, happy Days or here again. Yeah, as
soon as we get get this through the Senate and
get and the President to sign it, we're rocking and rolling.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Absolutely. That sounds wonderful. For well, thank you all that
for all that you do to represent our area and
to make sure that we are a part of all
of those conversations, and you are making sure that we
are at the front, forefront of things that we need here.
So thank you. Congressman Weber. Such a and honor to
have you on the show today.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Well, thank you, Dan, thank you for what y'all do.
We'll talk again.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Okay, thanks again, not by now. Well, we just want
to say thank you guys for being a part of
what Congressman Weber is doing. I hope you enjoyed his
conversation of all that he is participating in to to
bring to Southeast Texas the things that we need. And
when we come back, we're going to shift gears. But
(22:52):
it's another Randy, So it's the Randy Show. Today. We're
going to be visiting with Randy Rowe, who is the
cheap risk officer and the execs to vice president at
First Financial, and he's going to be talking to us
a little bit about fraud. So don't go away, come
right back. This is the Dana Simmons Show. Welcome back.
(23:14):
This is Dana Simmons and we have been having a
really wonderful show. Actually, Congressman Weber was on the show
in the first half. Gave us some updates on what's
going on on the Big Beautiful Bill and some things
that are happening to grow Southeast Texas, impacts on the
port on the Sabine River. So so many good things happening.
(23:36):
If you miss that, podcast will be posted next week
and you can go back and listen to that. We
are so thankful to have a congressman who is willing
to jump on the radio with me on a Saturday
of a holiday weekend, so very personal. Really appreciate that
he's willing to do that, So thank you again, Congressman Weber.
(23:57):
We have another Randy on the show with us. It
is Randy Rowe. He is the executive vice president and
chief risk officer at First Financial Bank Shares. And again,
I'm so nice to have Randy join me on a
holiday weekend to be willing to jump on the radio
show and give us some great tips and information and
(24:19):
really educate us on what he is seeing and what's happening.
So Randy, thank you so much for joining me today.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
So it's my pleasure. Dana, I'm like you, it was
good to hear from Congressman Weber. He's doing good work
and he's got a very hard job he does.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Yeah, so grateful. Well, I am excited for you to
kind of share information and shed light on some of
the fraud that we're seeing and The reason we want
to do this is to help people, educate people and
help them be prepared to prevent it from happening to themselves,
because fraudsters are getting smarter and smarter and using different
(24:57):
tactics and techniques to be able to get your information
in your money. So let's get started with what what
do you think is some of the most important topics
that people should know?
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Well, Danny, we're seeing a real increase in impersonation scams.
I don't think there's anyone listening today that has not
received a text message saying that they have a past
to hold charge. I mean that they're just impersonating the
toll authority. We see it because they impersonate our bank.
(25:34):
And you know that people tend to believe that text
messages and emails are authentic when they aren't. So you
know the best thing to do is don't panic because
most of these text messages and emails are designed to
create fear and anxiety. You know, it might say that
(25:56):
that you just use your debit card or credit card
at Walmart for five hundred dollars. You know, if you
get that text message, you kind of lose your mind
because you stop thinking and you panic, and so you
know the biggest things, Just slow down. Just know that
these these people are out there sending these types of
(26:16):
of of text messages, and you know most of them
are designed to either get your debt better credit card
or you know, have you withdraw money or transfer money
to them.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
So you know, it's happened to me, It's also happened
to me personally. With a phone call. I had the
Jefferson County Sheriff's Office number in my phone and and
so my phone rang and I answered it, and it
says Jefferson County Sheriff's Office. And the person on the
other line started talking to me about that I had
(26:56):
tickets or can't you remember the exact thing that he said,
But there was a warrant out for my arrest and
that if I didn't pay on you know, give him
my credit card information over the phone, that they were
going to come and arrest me. And I'll tell you
he got very aggressive and tried to instill fear into
(27:18):
me to make me give him, you know, my credit
card information to pay over the phone. Well, I just said, well,
you have my phone number, if you know where I live,
you can just come get me. You know, come pick
me up, is what I said. But for a lot
of people, let me just say that would be that
would be scary to think, oh, did I have a
(27:39):
ticket I didn't pay that I forgot about, you know,
and and now there's a warrant out for my arrest.
It's things like that. You're exactly right that they want
to instill fear to make you act immediately.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
That's right, you know, they put pressure on you. Yeah,
and like in that case, obviously he became very aggressive
because he you know, he's just trying to make you
stop thinking. Yeah, And you know, in those kinds of cases,
you just hang the phone up and you call the
sheriff's department or you call the toll authority, or you
call your bank and you say, hey, I've got this
(28:12):
text or I got this call. This is authentic.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
You know.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
The really the really sad ones are what we call
grandparents scams, or you know, you get a call or
a text message from somebody that says one of your
loved ones has been in an accident or they need
Those are the ones where you where you really lose
your mind and you have to kind of gain your composure.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Right right, Well, I know that impersonation scams is one.
What's another scam that you're seeing?
Speaker 3 (28:40):
Well, you know, an impersonation scam is a very broad
broad topic. You know, with businesses, we see we continue
to see a lot of invoice fraud. In other words, you'll,
I think anyone in business receives or sends invoices to
email or texts, and you know, somebody gets their email
(29:02):
compromise and they see those invoices have even been sent
or received, they can change the invoice or the change
or they'll send you another message saying, hey we change banks.
You need you need to pay you know this, uh
this invoice and another bank. And people get those and
they again they they seem to think that email is
(29:25):
a secure communication channel. It's not. I mean, you can't
trust things that you like that that you get through emails.
And so the best thing to do is, you know,
call the vendor. And I know at the bank, if
I get invoices through email, and if I ever receive
a payment instruction change, I picked the phone up and
(29:48):
call my relationship manager or whoever with that vendor and say, hey,
I just got this, this is legit. And before I
even transfer that over to our accounts payable groups that
they can change payment instructions. You just have to You
can't trust anything online.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Anymore, well, because an email can be copied exactly. We've
had that same thing happen with wiring instructions, where the
title company used to just send an email wiring instructions.
Someone intercepted that made the email look exactly like the
previous email to say, hey, the wiring instructions have changed.
(30:22):
Please see the attached and it's not actually the title company,
but everything in the email, even the email address, it's
just off one letter. Everything looks exactly the same, and
so you're exactly right. At that point in time. It's
a matter of pick up the phone and call and
don't call the number that call the number you know
is the title company, and say, hey, I'm just confirming.
(30:46):
But these days you can't even do that anymore. They
send secure wiring instructions because that was happening so often.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
Right, Yeah, we've seen some of those situations, and it's
a very bad day when you show up to closing
and they don't have your Yeah, but yeah, you always
have to look at those email addresses and confirm that
it is it's not a spoofed email or if it's
if it if it does come from that organization, you
can pick the phone up and call somebody and tell them, hey,
(31:15):
I just got this. We get you know, at the bank,
we can periodically we'll receive emails from our clients and
we could tell that their emails will compromise because they
want people set up in their online banking or you know,
something like that so they can start wiring funds and
so you know, at First Financial, we you know, we
put a really high priority on security awareness training. So
(31:37):
if there's any businesses out there and you've got soul employees,
I mean, you need to you need to make sure
everyone is paying attention and understands that you can't just
pay invoices or change payment instructions based on an email.
You have to verify it through what we call them
out of band or an alternative communication and method. If
(32:01):
you get it in an email, phone you know, called
the company, yeah, directly.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
And I know one of the things that First Financial
does a lot of is fraud lunch and learns and
if there is a facility that needs information about, you know,
how to avoid fraud. We thought we were doing everything
in my company, and so I brought my accounts manager
with me and we went and we still learned something
at one of those fraud lunch and learns. So if
(32:28):
if you have a company, a large company and that
needs that sort of training, I know First Financial has
done it for like rotary clubs, for churches, for all
kinds of different institutions to help them understand what are
some of the things you need to have in place
so that that doesn't happen to you.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
Yeah, we do a lot of them. I was in
mid loath End on Wednesday in Clevebland last week doing
these and I know they have a lot down Plane
Bailey President down in Orange that they do a lot of. Yeah,
but you know, some of the things if there's a
couple of things that if people would just pay attention,
(33:10):
you know, one of the biggest indicators of a phishing
email is the overuse of the word kindly right now
instead of please, and kindly is a perfectly lovely word.
It's a sweet word, it's a great word. But we
don't use that in the United States. We use the
word please. People who really use that are people who
(33:31):
speak a formal dialect of British English. And so if
you think if people in India are notably Nigeria, who
are very good at this, they use that word. I
know the people up in the Northeast use this use
kindly quite a bit, but you know, we're not in
the Northeast. I'm just saying, but if it's an overuse
of that word, that should be a really big red flag. Also,
(33:54):
if they want you to pay in USD instead of
using the dollar sign, that's a huge red flag. We
don't do that. We use the dollar sign for cash.
You know, if you have a plumber and he said
you an invoice, he's not going to tell you to
send me five hundred usd's I want to say dollar
time five hundred. Right, these are people that aren't in
(34:14):
the United States, and that's a huge red flag when
you see these.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Right, Well, these are such great tips. And Randy, when
we come back after this break, I want to talk
a little bit about check fraud because that's also another
challenge that you guys see and there are all kinds
of ways that people are managing to intercept checks and
we'll have you talk through what we can do and
how to do that. But this has been so educational
(34:39):
thus far. Looking forward to the next segment. So this
is Dana Simmons. Don't go away, you don't want to
miss it. We'll be right back. Welcome back. This is
Dana Simmons and I'm joined today by Randy Rowe, who
is the executive vice president and chief risk officer for
First Financial Bank Shares. And Randy, we've been talking about
(35:00):
lot of fraud and scams, and you talked about the
impersonation scams where you know, you get a text message
and it says you have a toll Most of us,
you said, have gotten that, Yes, And there are lots
of other scams as well. And then the invoice fraud
where someone says, hey, we're changing our payment, send the invoice. Uh,
(35:21):
send your payment to this new payment area. But there's
also check fraud, and you guys are seeing a lot
of changes in check fraud. But then I want you
to talk about what are some ways that we can
avoid the challenge with check fraud because I know in
my company we've changed how we do things because of
(35:42):
check fraud.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
Yeah, tech fraud is increasing and in the banking industry,
if you were to ask us ten years ago, if
we had had checks today, we would say no, people,
you know, we'll move, we won't have as many checks.
But businesses continue to write a lot of checks. We
have a lot of consumers who write checks. I personally
write checks periodically. But the biggest thing today that you
(36:09):
have to remember is you don't want to mail checks. Unfortunately,
the US Postal Service has a security issue. And you
know there's good people at the Postal Service. I know
a lot of them. They work hard, but the bad
guys are assaulting postal carriers to steal a key off
(36:29):
of them that they call them arrow key, and this
arrow key will open those blue mail receptacles that you
might see on a street corner and they go through
those and they find what is a check, and they
might steal the check and they sell the checks online.
We monitor for checks that are being sold online to
notify our customers. But the main thing is is don't
(36:52):
mail check if you don't have to, and if you do,
call your bank and sign up for what we call
positive pay. Positive pay is available to commercial customers and
it's essentially you tell us what check you wrote, the amount,
the number who you made the checkout to, and then
when that check comes through you and if it's if
it's not the check you wrote, you just say return
(37:16):
and it goes back. And and we have a system
also for a c H is if you use a
c H.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
Yeah. And one of the things I was shocked by
on check fraud is the term washing and how people
are able to do that with the check where they
maybe go to your your mailbox, pull your your checks
out that you're mailing to your to your vendors, and
then they're able to actually wash the name of the
(37:45):
two in the amount off of there in order to
make the checkout to whomever they want.
Speaker 3 (37:51):
Yeah, that's the Yeah, that's called check washing. They just
use acetone or something to clear that. Yeah. They we
see a lot of that. And that's where positive pay
comes in because if they change the amount, it flags it.
You have paye match, then it flags it. They will
also set up a assumed name certificate and go into
(38:13):
another bank and open an account deposit that in the
name of the check paye and then the deposit the
check at a bank that may not have as good
of controls and steal money that way. Or what we've
seen lately a few times is that they'll they'll make
a copy of the check and then they'll put the
(38:34):
check back in the envelope and send it on, send
it on its way, and then they create checks that look,
you know, with the same information, you can buy a
check stock from you know, office depot or Staples or
any of those places, and they play and they print
checks and negotiate these checks. So, uh, you know, the
moral of the story is don't don't mail checks if
(38:56):
you don't have to. And you know this is graduation
season and a lot of people are mailing checks to graduates.
Is just just be aware and watch your account very
closely if you do that.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Yeah, So, Randy, what are what are the top tips
that you could give our listeners to help them prevent
these things happening to them. I know one of the
things that you talked about is positive pay, and I
know in our office with we are with First Financial
and that's exactly one of the things that we utilize
(39:29):
is positive pay. But what are some other things, whether
it's a business or someone who it's their personal checking,
what are the most important things that they need to
look for to protect themselves.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
Well, again, don't put checks in those blue mail receptacles.
You know, if you're going to mail a check, carry
it inside the post office to mail it. Sign up
for electronic statements so you get your bank statement electronically
instead of through the mail, because they steal those also.
And when they steal those, you know what's in your
(40:03):
bank statement a copy of your check, right so they
they We've seen images of checks deposited through remote deposit, uh,
you know, like mobile deposits and things like that. You
just just be aware that this is going on. Just
be aware that when you write a check, all of
(40:24):
your account information is being presented to a third party.
And sometimes we just have to do it right. I
mean I write text to church, I write text to
for charitable donations and that sort of thing. But you
just have to watch your account. Always watch your account. Yeah,
the biggest that's the biggest stal and.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
Even with credit card situation. So for for us, I
know that my husband Ken has something set up where
really every time something comes through where I've used even
the credit card, it'll it alerts him and then over
a certain amount it alerts him so he's able to say, hey, Dana,
did you you know was that you who did that?
(41:05):
And I'm able to say yeah, yeah, that was me.
Then he knows everything I'm doing, so you know, it's
helpful and it's not so helpful.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
So yeah, that's the beauty of online banking today. I
mean there's so many things that this technology can help
you monitor, like debit card alerts and credit card alerts
and and external transfers that may be set up or
if your phone number. So I'd encourage everyone to set
(41:35):
up online banking and monitor their account because you've got
the same information that we have at your fingertips. I mean,
it's a and it's such a great tool. And mobile banking,
you know, that's our We have an unbelievable number of
people logging in every day through mobile banking. They're checking
things that you can turn your debit card on and off.
(41:57):
I mean there's a lot of great security features that
you can use just the online banking channels.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
Yeah, that's that's so many good products that First Financial offers,
and that's why we are cheerleaders for you because we
are a part of First Financial and love everything that
you guys provide. Any parting thoughts, Randy as we wrap
up the.
Speaker 3 (42:21):
Show, Well, the only one I need to mention very quickly,
any kind of investment scams for a for a person.
You know, we see there's this you can you can
google or search for pig butchering. It's a horrible sounding name,
but it was created over an Asia where they they
trick you into making small investments and they will even
(42:44):
provide a fake website for you to see your quote
investment grow and and you get sucked into it and
then send tremendous amounts of money and then they just
walk away. I mean, it's it's a it's a terrible
and that the reason they at pick the trees they
can financially fat you up and then and then but
(43:05):
I guess at the end, but you know, before I leave,
everyone on this call needs to freeze their credit. Okay,
that's the that's the h You just need to You
just need to understand the bad guys probably already have
your personal information. They already know where you live, they
got your driver's license and solid security. You need to
freeze your credit with the major credit reporting agencies because
(43:26):
if they try to commit idea any theft, they're going
to try to get a credit card or something from
someone that's going to run your credit report. If your
credit report's frozen. They can't run it. It's the best
protection you have.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
Ray, that is such great advice. Thank you so much
for giving us such good information and ending it with
I think, which is a great thing for all of
us to do. I hope you all have a wonderful
holiday weekend. It's been a pleasure having you all on
the show, and we'll see you again next week.
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