October 31, 2025 • 40 mins
- On this week's show Dayna talks with Sidney Williams about protecting your credit cards and bank account. Plus advice to businessses on protecting against fraud.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, hello everyone, so excited that you could join us
on this beautiful Saturday. I have Sidney Williams with me today.
She is with the Treasury Management department at First Financial Bank,
and if you are in the middle of experiencing anything
that has to do with fraud, well she's got some
(00:21):
good input for you. And let me just say, if
you haven't experienced fraud.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Yet, it's coming.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Unfortunately, we have that running rampant all over our world
right now, whether it's text, messages, emails, in so many
different areas of our life, we are experiencing fraud. So
I want you to stay tuned because Sydney is gonna
help you and give you some tips and some information
(00:49):
about what are some things you can do to protect
yourself from fraud. I was shocked the very first time
I went to her lunch and learn I thought I
was covered. I thought I had done everything, But guess what,
there is so much there. So stay tuned. In our
next segment, she's going to tell us a little bit
about some of that fraud. But before we get started,
(01:11):
I'd always like to give you a little bit of
a tip on where we are in the market. So
right now we are seeing that the market is in
a really good position for buyers. We have an incredible inventory,
more inventory than we've had in several years, so you know,
we're looking at a pretty even market right now too,
a six month to seven month inventory, which is a
(01:34):
good market to begin. We also are seeing interest rates
begin to drop a bit, so we are much lower
than the thirty year average of seven point seven percent.
You're going to find yourself in the sixes typically, and
for some of you maybe even in the fives. So
it's going to depend on a lot of different things
(01:55):
for you. If you need to visit with us about
who do we recommend for mortgage l we'll give my
office a call at four nine eight six six eight
three two six, and we can connect you with those
mortgage lenders so that you can see what type of
loan and what kind of interest rate you can get.
But getting pre approved is the very first step, so
(02:15):
let us assist you and guide you in making sure
you're working with a local lender who understands our local market. Also,
you know, if you're thinking about selling again, we're in
that even market, so it is a great time to
go ahead and get your house ready to prepare for
that spring market that's coming up. So in the next
couple of weeks, I think we're going to have our
(02:38):
listing department talking to you about getting your house prepared
for that spring market. So stay tuned here every Saturday
at noon we give you tips on what you can
do to get your house ready or what the real
estate market is like. But before we get going on
the fraud information, I want to introduce you to Sidney Williams.
(02:59):
This is her time to be on the show, but
she has been with First Financial Bank for a little.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
While, right, Yes, for about eight years.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
So Sidney, tell us a little bit about you. Where
did you grow up? Tell us where you're from.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Yeah, so I've lived invited most of my adult life.
I actually graduated from Vider High School and then I
went to college at Lamar University and got my bachelor's
in business. And First Financial Bank has kind of been
there with me through the way ever since I was
in college. Started off as a teller, and then I
went full time in college and at work, and so
(03:34):
I started doing new accounts and then this role had
opened up and I graduated college and was really able
to focus on my career. So now I'm in treasury
management focusing on fraud and some of the services for
our business customers.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Yeah, and here's what I love about that whole story.
I love that you're a local girl, lady, I should say,
young lady who grew up here, went to Lamar University,
which we are so blessed to have Lamar University here.
What a gift that is that, you know, I've said
it many times here. My kids, my plus kids, all
(04:10):
of them are graduates of Lamar University and it is
such a great university. It allowed you to also work
part time or work and go to school at the
same time by being here locally, and then integrate into
a full time position with First Financial. And so I
think that's part of the Also the joy of First
(04:31):
Financial is that they are so locally minded. You guys
are always doing things to help the local community. What
was I saw you did something recently. Talk a little
bit about that.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
So we actually had our annual day of service recently,
and so we all, you know, had the day off
on Columbus Day and we went to sleep in Heavenly
Peace and we were able to help them make beds.
And one really cool thing about Sleeping Heavenly piece is
that you can do anything, they'll show you how to
do it. So if you've never worked on you know,
like sanding wood or use a nail gun, they're going
(05:04):
to teach you how to do it. But so fulfilling
because they actually give beds to underprivileged children who wouldn't
otherwise have a bed and it's all fully volunteer based,
and so it was really a great day for us
to be able to serve in our community. And we
do things like that all the time with our fraud presentations.
For example, we can go to churches and talk to
(05:25):
you know, any kind of group. It doesn't even have
to be business focused. And we just want to get
the word out there that you know, fraud is happening.
Like you said, if you haven't experienced it, it will happen,
and we just want to make sure that the members
of the community are aware of what's out there.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Absolutely, And I love that you guys were there with
Sleep and Heavenly Peace. I've seen so much good coming
from that organization. And one of the things that they
do is you build the beds, but then you also
provide the bedding correct.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Correct, Yes, So there was the mattress and everything.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Mattress and betting. I see, you know, lots of organizations
collecting that so you could do like bed in a
bag for a twin bed and even just drop that
off at Sleep in Heavenly Peace and be able to
help in that way as well. But that organization started
just out of a need, and then they started meeting
that need and then expanded to the community to get
(06:18):
their help. Well, so excited to have you on the
show today, Sydney. We have a lot of great things
to cover, so don't go away, We'll be right back.
This is the Dana Simmons Show. Welcome back. This is
Dana Simmons. I am joined today by Sidney Williams. She
is the Treasury Management from the Treasury Management Department at
(06:40):
First Financial Bank, Sydney. What's your official title?
Speaker 3 (06:43):
I am a Terasury Management Officer.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Officer, got it.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
So you personally have been the treasury management officer.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
For my office.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Actually, you've helped my office get set up on lots
of different things to help protect us from fraud, which
I'm so grateful for an incredible job. You are a
great communicator, You're very patient and that's what I love
about first financial but also what you do because many
(07:11):
of us, especially me, I'm not knowledgeable about all that,
so sometimes I feel maybe a little more ignorant about
what to do and how to do it and what's
the terminology. You never made any of us feel that way.
You walked us through step by step. Were there weren't
any strange questions. You acted like everything we did was normal.
(07:33):
And so whether or not we're normal or not, I
don't know, but I appreciate you the way that you
worked through all of that with us to assist us
in doing everything we can. And so there is so
much that you do, and we're going to talk about
a lot of those different programs that you have to
help protect people from fraud, not just businesses but also personally.
(07:55):
But let's get started first with merchant services. So on
merchant services fraud, what are some of the common fraud
schemes that's being used right now against many of the
businesses who are taking card payments.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Yeah, so one of the facets of my job I
actually specialize in is merchant services, and all that is
is any business that takes a card payment, I help
facilitate that acceptance, whether that be a terminal, a point
of sale. QR codes are very popular payment portals and
all of that. Those avenues of taking payments, though, do
(08:31):
come with risk and there are some rules that protect
the buyer but can also impact the business when it
comes to disputes.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
I love that you're helping us to understand all the terminology.
So when you talk about merchant services and the people
who take that, it could be it could be someone
who is selling in out of their car that so
merchant services applies to that and they use a little square,
(09:00):
or it could be a large business retail shop.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
So you're talking it's a range of people.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Yes, anybody that is taking a card payment all. I'd
definitely encourage you to listen to this bit because we
are seeing an increase in chargebacks. All a chargeback is
is whenever a consumer or even a business goes to
their bank to dispute a charge, generally you want them
to go to you first. Right, Let's say that they
ordered merchandise and the merchandise was faulty, you would want
(09:29):
them to contact your business so you can remedy that
instead of going to their bank first. But what we're
seeing is an increase of buyers going to their bank first,
or we're seeing what we call buyers remorse, and so
what that looks like is somebody goes to your establishment,
they purchased an item, and then however long later, usually
up to six months, they can dispute that with their
(09:50):
bank and say that it didn't work or they didn't
like it or what have you. And so then you're
stuck trying to, you know, navigate the dispute process to
keep those funds in your account. What happens most of
the time is your payment processor will take the funds
back from that sale, they hold on to it, and
then they will release it or they will send it
(10:10):
back to the cardholder, depending on the determination of the case.
So sometimes that can be as easy as you showing
a receipt and saying, hey, this was you know, purchase,
they did sign off on it, I have had no contact,
and then you get to keep your funds. Sometimes they
will dispute back and say no, I tried to reach
out to you. Then you can go to arbitration, which
(10:32):
goes to your card brands Visa, MasterCard, Discover Amex, and
then they make the determination on who gets to keep
the funds. So while that can be very confusing to
navigate your processor, your bank. If they help get you,
you know, access to merchant services, they'll help you with
that process. But it's very important to know what are
some things that you can do to prevent this from
(10:54):
even happening.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Absolutely, so that was going to be my question. So
how do how do you stop that and how do
you intercept that challenge?
Speaker 3 (11:01):
So one is to have them either sign the receipt
or to chip insert or tap their card. So when
that happens, that will help show that they were physically
in your establishment and that they did authorize a sale.
That prevents any chargebacks or will help you win a
case if you were to have a chargeback from a fraud.
(11:21):
And then what will happen too is to make sure
that you're accessible. So if your customer has an issue
with their product, make sure that they are able to
call you and get a hold of you easily, that
way that they can remedy that with you first. But
the biggest takeaway i alwould say is try not to
key enter those payments on the terminal and really try
not to have them swipe their card. You always want
(11:42):
to make sure that they are chip inserting or tapping
whenever possible, especially if it's a transaction done actually at
your establishment.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
So since this is what you do when you first
meet with a business owner, I'm sure these are all
the things that you go through with them initially.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Yes, correct, Yes, I try to go over all the
best practices that they could possibly do, because we've seen
businesses take losses of thousands of dollars, especially if you're
selling a large ticket item. We actually had a customer
who sold large ticket items and they had someone call
them on the phone and said, Hey, I'm a trucker.
(12:21):
I need to come buy some tires. So I'm gonna,
you know, pay over the phone, and then I'm going
to send my wife and to come grab you know,
the merchandise. And so you know, the story does check out,
so they you know, pay over the phone, and then
the wife picks up the tires. Then a month or
so later they get a charge back for stolen card information.
(12:41):
So what happened was the person calling had stolen card information,
they made the purchase over the phone, and then the
wife came to pick up the merchandise, and now the
business is out the money and the merchandise and so
you know what happened was they did the dispute, but
they didn't have anything signed. They didn't have that digital
footprint that the tap and the chip give you when
(13:02):
you know, pay in person, so they had nothing to
help them other than to file a police report essentially
because they were also a victim of fraud.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
That business, right, how challenging and it is amazing how
smart the criminals are getting so that they know to
do this kind of thing, and so it's so important
that we listen to those who.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Are over this like you guys.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
That's why it's also so important to have a local
bank that you can connect with, a local banker, a
local treasury management officer who can sit down with you
in your business and go through that. Now, talk a
little bit about what is refund fraud.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
So that's something that's been around for a long time.
The point of sale terminals that you see or a
countertop terminal, those can be emulated. And so what happens
is the fraudsters, however they get the information, they will
actually take that coding, that technical information and put it
into a terminal somewhere else. So they basically have created
(14:10):
a dummy terminal of your terminal somewhere else, and then
they take that terminal and they will use that to
make refunds to their card. And so when you process
a refund on your terminal, you're actually taking money out
of your account and giving it to the cardholder. And
so when they emulate your terminal, they're taking money out
of your account and giving it to themselves. And so
one way to get around terminal emulation essentially, which would
(14:33):
lead to the refund fraud, is to look at your
batch reports every day. If you have a portal, go
online and look at your batches on your portal and
make sure that you don't see any refunds that you
didn't initiate. This can also, unfortunately happen with employees. If
you have employees who can do refunds, make sure that
you have them locked down to have to input a password.
(14:55):
And it's very good to delegate authority. So let's say
the only managers are able to shoe refunds and not
just all staff. So there's two different ways that can happen,
either emulation or internal.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
So that is so crazy. I never would have thought
of that.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
So emulation is really they copy your same portal. Yes,
somewhere else and then when they do the refund, they're
getting that cash out. Yes, correct, is so, so my
brain doesn't think that way. And that's what's bad is
that because I never would have even thought about that
(15:29):
if I owned a business that had that. That wouldn't
come to mind unless you came and sat down and
talk to me, which you did on our situation. But
we don't have these We don't have these terminals. We
don't have terminals at our office, so we don't have that.
But wow, that is so enlightening. And when we come back,
we are actually going to talk about debit card fraud
(15:50):
and what are some ways to protect yourself from that.
So you do not want to go away, you don't
want to miss this. This is Dana Simmons with the
Dana Simmons Show.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Welcome back.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
This is Dana Simmons and we are visiting with Sidney Williams.
She is the Treasury management officer at First Financial Bank
and we have been talking about fraud. In our very
first segment, she covered merchant services fraud and the common
schemes that are being used against businesses that are taking
card payments. And if you're a business, you need to
(16:24):
visit with Sydney. There are all kinds of things going
on that you need to.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Be aware of.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
But we also are experiencing things with debit card frauds.
So Sydney, what are some ways for all of us
out there to protect ourselves from debit card fraud.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
Yes, So one of the things that I would recommend
is whenever you're going to a website, like let's say,
you know, any large retailer website. You know, you go
through your checkout process, you have things in your card,
and then to ask you to enter your payment information.
There are services out there that you can enter your
card into, let's say, like the Paypals of the world,
(17:02):
and then it will help you make that payment securely.
So instead of you putting your card information directly into
that large retailer, you can actually put it into PayPal
and that information that's sent over will still process your card,
but you're not actually giving your card information, so that
puts you at less risk for any fraud to happen
on those websites. Websites, as you've probably seen, they can
(17:24):
be emulated a lot of times. We've seen, especially on
social media, there will be like a store closing sale right,
and it'll say, oh, our store is closing down, you know,
due to whatever reason. We have these great sales, and
you click on the link and you're on this large
retailer site. Well, they're actually creating fake websites to get
you on there. So whenever you add that second layer protection,
(17:46):
your card is still process but they don't actually have
your card information to process more fraudulent payments. So definitely
be weary too of any websites on social media advertising
great sales. Go on your browse and actually just look
up those large retailers and make sure you're on their website.
That's one way to help protect you from fraud. Another
(18:08):
option if you have a credit card. A lot of
people think of credit cards as a way to you know,
either make a large purchase or get cash back, which
they're great for those things too, but they also put
a barrier between your account and all of your money
and the purchases and where you're you know, giving that information,
and so you get that float time usually around thirty
(18:28):
days to be able to reconcile and make sure that
nothing is you know, fraudulent before even debits your bank account.
And so if you're gonna make a payment on a website,
or if you're gonna make a payment, just in general,
it's really good to put that on your credit card.
And that way, if there is fraud that hits you
later on, you can dispute that before it even goes
out of your account. So it's really a good way
(18:49):
to make a barrier between your account.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Yeah, and so I love the thought that you said
about maybe even opening a separate checking account.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Yes, actually use this myself. So I have, you know,
my main account that has my funds, and then I
have a separate account. My main account doesn't even have
a debit card. I don't issue checks out of it.
It's just straight for my bills to come out of.
Then I have another account and that's where i'll if
I have to write a check, I will, but i'll
do any debit card purchases. You know, at retailers. Years ago,
(19:21):
they actually had an issue where if you paid at
the pump at gas stations, they had skimmers. And we
haven't seen as much of that, but I'm sure it's
still out there. So it's really good if you're gonna,
you know, make a payment somewhere like that to use
a card that's not attached to your main balance, and
you can limit how much money you even have in
your second account to limit the exposure of your loss.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Yeah, and in one of the ways that I think
that it's helpful for that as well, is that something
that positive pay could also help with.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
Yes. On the check side, absolutely, so positive pay is
really good for businesses if you have to issue checks. Now,
on the consumer side, I would just recommend not issuing
checks if all possible, or using a service like bill
pay to help make those electronic. But on the business side,
sometimes you just have to write checks. It's just a
common way to make a payment. So if you have
(20:15):
to write a check and you have to mail it, especially,
positive pay will put a filter on your account. And
so essentially you would issue a check out and before
you mail it or hand it off, you would put
it into your online banking. You know, all institutions should
have the service, whether it be positive pay or some
other kind of name. You just have to ask them
for check fraud prevention and they'll be able to point
(20:37):
you in the right direction, and so you'll put that
check into your online banking and then it will know
that check is good. If that check is changed, let's
say that they change the amount, they change the name
on the check, then you will actually be flagged and
you can go in and either choose to pay or
return that check, depending on if it's been altered or
if it's fraudulent.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Okay, And one of the things that I know how
been in the last several months or year was we
heard about a situation where at a hotel, a maid
went into the hotel room to clean the room and
the person wasn't there, but they had all kinds of
(21:17):
different checks on that on their countertop.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Yes, they were actually shaving off the name that the
paye was made out to with a scalpel, and then
they were using a device to print on their name.
Fortunately the fraudster was not very smart in this case.
They used their own name and they were cashing the
checks themselves, so it didn't take long for authorities to
apprehend them. But it was a local business. They had
(21:42):
broken into their mailbox it's outside and taken all those
checks that people had mailed to them. We've seen a
lot of fraud too, where the people will put it
in the drop box outside of the post office and
then those are being broken into as well. And so
when you think about it, when you issue a check,
you're giving them the keys your house. You know, they've
got your name, your account number, routing number, your address,
(22:04):
your signature. I mean, there's avenues for a fraud even
outside of a check at that point. You know, I
could take a check from somebody if they gave me
their check, and then I could make my electric payment
come out of their account, you know, because I could
just put that information online. So it's really important to
have those best practices and also those filters put into place.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Yeah, I know we used to write void on a
check and think, oh, no, one can use my check.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
But yes they.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Can, yes, and they can take the information from it.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Yes, and they're actually not bringing it to the bank anymore.
So a lot of times we used to be able
to verify because we had that check in our hands
as tellers, looking at it with our eyes to verify
with what we have in the system. Nowadays, they're not
even going into the bank, so they're able to just
take a picture of the check on their phone and
deposit it into their online banking, you know, and so
(22:53):
it's really quick and they don't even have to go
in person anymore. So things are all processing electronically. That's
why it's more important than ever to have a system
in place to automate that for you because now fraud
is becoming more automated, it really is.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
So one way is don't write checks if you can
help it. Number two, don't leave checks in your mailbox.
And then number three. Have a system like positive pay,
which First Financial has, but your bank may have another
name for it. That verifies the name and the amount
because even if it's the name, they could change the amount.
So it verifies name in the amount that you put
(23:28):
in when the check comes through the system. So all
really good things on if you're writing a check now.
You were talking about the debit card fraud before that,
and so let's say we're not using our check now,
we're using our debit card like we were talking about earlier.
But there are ways that you can before if you
do use your debit card. Because I'm going to tell
(23:49):
you my husband does it to me all the time
and he says, did you charge XYZ and this amount
of money? So tell me what that is.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Yeah, So text alert important to have and you can
do this on your debit card on your credit card,
And what it does is anytime you can set either thresholds,
so anything over X amount, I'll get a text from
or you can say everything. I personally receive texts for
everything I do, and I recommend doing it.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
That way too.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Ken does because it was eighty two dollars just yesterday
and he's like.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Do you charge eighty two?
Speaker 3 (24:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Yeah, but I am hope I love that.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Yes. It gives you the opportunity to know if there
is fraud ahead of time, so you can cut your
card off and our app you can actually go in
as a consumer and turn your card off in the app.
A lot of institutions should offer that for you. And
so as soon as you see that fraud on your
phone that says, hey, there's something I didn't authorize, you
can either respond no and I'll shut your card off,
or you can go into your app and shut it
(24:46):
off yourself. But it prevents additional fraud from happening. Kind
of gives you a heads up ahead of time, and
a lot of times what will happen is the fraud
will try to happen through what we call like a
pre authorization. Sometimes whenever you you sign up for an
automatic payment to come out on your car. You'll see
in your account like a zero dollar, zero cent charge
(25:06):
and it'll say visa provisioning or something similar. And so
if you see that and you never set anything up,
that's a red flag for you to know something's probably
going to try to come out of my account. And
so they'll do either that or they'll do pennies, you know,
a dollar. They'll test it with something very small, right,
and then they'll start hitting you with larger once they
realize that that card is active and processing. And so
(25:28):
that's why it's important whenever you have text alerts, you'll
get the heads up for that small dollar transaction sometimes
before they start hitting you for the large payments.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Yeah, so so many different ways that you can protect yourself.
You just have to be aware of the systems that
are in place, and you have to understand that it
can happen to absolutely any of us and it doesn't
take much for it to wipe you clean, because fraudsters
are incredibly smart. We were just talking about I wish
(25:58):
they could use their smart sphe good and not evil,
but it's not the way it is because we do
live in.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
This evil world.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
So well when we come back, Sydney has shared so
many good things and we are going to talk about
some additional recent fraud with text messages and additional things.
So this is a great show that you don't want
to miss. This may save you thousands of dollars, So
don't go away. This is the Dana Simmons Show. Welcome back.
(26:26):
This is Dana Simmons and I am joined by Sydney Williams,
the treasury management officer at First Financial Blank and Wow.
She has opened our eyes to lots of fraud that
is going on in Southeast Texas and trying to help
prevent that fraud from your business, from your personal life.
(26:46):
And she has gone through a lot of different things.
But we're going to cover a couple of other recent
frauds that you may have experienced.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
I know I have.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
So let's talk a little bit Sidney about the text
messages that we see.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
So one of the most common text messages that have
been sent out recently is toll So you'll you've probably
received them, but you'll get text message and it will
say that you have an unpaid toll and then there's
a long list of consequences if you don't pay it
in time. So anytime that you receive a text message
that's not you know, within the normal that you have,
(27:22):
then you definitely want to report it. On iPhones, you
can actually go in there and you can report it
as junk. So do just either delete it or report
it or both. But there are some like other avenues
that they've tried to exploit, such as UPS or USPS
and AT and T. So I would recommend because I
know I personally do shop online and I do sometimes
(27:44):
get these text messages and they are legitimate. It's to
save those legitimate text message numbers into your contacts. So
I have one that says UPS, and so when UPS
actually texts me, that's the contact that shows up. If
a fraudulent UP text message comes through, then I'll know
because it's going to be a random string of numbers
and it's not going to register to that contact. So
(28:07):
anytime that you have those set up automatically, those are
the ones you want to go ahead and add to
your contacts.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
Now here's the challenge with that, okay, So, and we're
going to talk more about phone calls too, and sometimes
the phone calls that you receive, but if they're making
a phone call, they can copy a number. So, for example,
let me tell you what happened to me. I have
Jefferson County Sheriff's Office in my phone because I have
(28:35):
property Infinet and if I need to call them for anything,
they're already in there. Well, I get a phone call
while I'm at work and it says Jefferson County Sheriff's Office,
and it's the number that I have saved in my phone,
and the gentleman I use the term gentleman loosely on
the other line, says Miss Simmons, you have a ticket
(29:01):
that hasn't been paid, and we have a warrant for
your arrest and I need you to pay that ticket. Well,
at first, I'm thinking I haven't gotten a ticket, but
if I had.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
You know, I don't. I haven't gotten a ticket.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
And so he goes on and he gets firmer with
his conversation and says, if you don't pay this ticket
right now, we're going to come arrest you. And so
finally my brain clicks and I'm like, okay, this is
a scammer, And I'm like, okay, come pick me up.
(29:38):
Go ahead and come get me. You guys know where
I live, you know where I work, Come on over
and I hang up the phone. But I can see
where that would be challenging to someone who's older, who
may not or maybe they did get a ticket. I
(29:59):
mean they could legit intimately have a ticket and then
you're not paying your ticket. So let's talk a little
bit about some of these phone calls that are being
made that are fraudulent.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
Well, like you had mentioned, you know, the fraud store
is getting more firm with you and more urgent. Urgency
is a red flag. So even if you have a
number call you that you know, if there is a
heightened sense of urgency, that's your moment to take pause,
even though instinctually you want to, you know, get nervous
and all that. Take pause, and you can always hang up.
(30:29):
So we actually, you know, with either banks with the IRS,
there's a lot of different phone call scams coming out
where they're spoofing like local telephone numbers. Yeah, and they're
pretending like, you know, we need to verify information for
a wire, you know, trying to just get you to
give them information. Hang up. You know, us at the bank,
we will never be upset if you hang up on us,
(30:51):
because you can just call us back at a number
you know or from the number on our website, and
then we'll make sure that you're taking care of We
can verify if it's fraud or not. You know, we
would rather you hang up on us and lose money,
you know, at the end of the day. And so
any provider that you have that's calling you or you know,
social Security shouldn't call you. But we've seen those happen too.
(31:13):
I actually had someone who shared their information with the
fraudster and by the time they got to the bank,
I helped them call to get you know, to make
sure everything was good. They had actually changed their account
routing information, so their retirement was going to another account
and so we fortunately were able to have them revert
the changes and put a lock on their account. But
(31:35):
I mean, they're just that fast. It took five minutes
for them to get to the bank, right and they
were able to change the information. So just always hang up.
One scheme I did want to talk about that's been
common and what's really happening with technology now is that
frosters are using AI to emulate people's voices. Sometimes you'll
receive a phone call and no one's talking and you're going, hello, Hello,
(31:59):
you know, this is you know, Sidney, and they're trying
to take your voice so they can emulate it in
other situations. So if you had a call from an
unknown number and no one's talking, don't talk. Just hang
up because they can call you back. But what we're
seeing is that they're actually using this information to try
to emulate voices and use it to do a grandchild scheme.
(32:20):
So what they're doing is they're following you on Facebook,
They're going to your social media. They see that you
have grandchildren, they see their ages and their names, and
they'll call and say, oh, yeah, grandma, I'm at I
got arrested. I'm in jail and I need someone to
you know, wire me some money so that I can
make bail and leave. And they sound just like their grandchild, right,
and now the grandparent is very upset and they're trying
(32:42):
to help their grandchild out. And turns out their grandchild's
at home sleeping. So even if you get a call
like that, hang up and call them on the number,
you know, call their parents, you know, your children, and
verify it. Because they're getting smarter and they're working off
of urgency. So just take if you can take nothing else,
just take urgency as a red flag. If it feels
like you need to be rushed, that's when you need
(33:02):
to take pause.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Right.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
And it happens in so many different areas where they
really get you emotionally charged so that you are feeling
the emotions and you feel like you have to act quickly.
And so I agree, I think that is the smartest
thing you can.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
Do, is just pause.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Well, one of the things that has happened to one
of our at one of our properties is a gentleman
called me and uh, he said, he called about one
of our houses that we had listed. Uh, and someone
had taken a picture offline about of the backyard. They
(33:43):
sent this to He owned a tree service company. They
sent this picture and said, I need this tree removed.
And what I'm going to do is I'm going to
send you more money, and I just need you to
send me the balance of that money. And so he
(34:04):
went and they sent him the money. He went and
cut down the tree. He got the money, went and
cut down the tree. Then something in him was.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
Like wait a minute.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Called our office because it had the first sale sign
in the front yard and said, hey, I'm just feeling
strange about this. I need to confirm. I called the
seller and she goes, no, I did not authorize anybody
to do that, and no, I don't want that tree cut,
and so it was a fraud. Let me tell you
(34:36):
what just happened. Like not that long ago, I had
another house that was listed. Someone called a contracting company
told them they wanted them to remove the driveway and
then pour another driveway from that acted like they were
(34:57):
the owners of the property. The contract went and removed
the driveway, and so the owner came home and there
was no driveway there and called me and said, Dana,
what's going on. And about that time, the contractor drives
(35:17):
up to the house and says, well, you authorized us
to remove this, and you were going to pay us
I mean and talk to I mean, that was his
whole scheme.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
I'm telling you.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
I can't even go into all the details, but that
contractor ended up having to pour a new concrete driveway
for the seller because the seller never it was his
dad's house and he was selling it. There was never
an authorization for them to remove the driveway. So the
fraudulent people out there are scheming like crazy. And you're
(35:50):
exactly right, slow down, get the accurate information, and work
towards making that happen. One of the things we're also
seeing is fake proof of funds. There are many sellers
who are saying, I want proof of funds before someone
walks into my house. And so we'll get that proof
of funds and it looks real. But I'll call the
(36:12):
bank and say, I don't call the number on the sheet.
I google and find the bank, call that bank and
they're like, no, we don't have a customer with that name.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
So it's everywhere.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
So Sidney, let's talk about the fact that you guys
do these trainings. So talk a little bit about where
you've done them, how you do them, and if someone
wants you to come talk to their group, what do
they need to do.
Speaker 3 (36:40):
So we are very flexible, So any kind of you know,
way we can get the word out about fraud, we
are happy to do. So we've done you know, we
call it luncheon learns, but they can be breakfast learns.
You know, we're not tied to a timeframe, so anytime
that works for your business or for your church, we
can do it. Towards consumers, we can do it or businesses.
(37:01):
We've had it where businesses have had their administrative staff
come in and we gear it towards their processes and
best practices. And then we've had it to where we've
gone to churches and we've talked to people about just
the consumer side of things and what to look out for.
So we really just work with whatever your needs are.
You know, our goal at the end of the day
is just to help you protect yourself. So if there's
(37:22):
anything that you guys want us to do, all you
have to do is give us a call and we
were happy to work with whoever to get that set up.
We actually have people who are going to walk you
through what we need to make it as easy as possible,
and we just come there and we talk to you guys,
and you know, hopefully y'all get something out of it.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
And there's no charge.
Speaker 3 (37:41):
Correct.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
Yeah, you guys do this just as a way to
give back to the community to try to protect people.
So where would they call, who would they talk to?
How do they do that? If someone's out there going, yeah,
I'd love that for my organization, this would be a
great thing for us to provide.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
How do they do that?
Speaker 3 (37:56):
Yeah? So they can either call me, I'm Sidney Williams,
and then we all so have Kim Dickerson. She also
organizes these as well, so they can call either one
of us. They can call a local branch. Really any
person that works that First Financial bank. You can call
them and say I want to do a fraud lunch
and learn and we will get you taken care of.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
So they can google First Financial Banks call and say
I want to do a fraud lunch and learn. And again,
like you said, it doesn't have to be lunch, and no,
you don't provide the lunch. You provide the services for
free to I mean you talk about it, but they
provide whatever lunch or brunch or whatever they want for
their people and then you guys come and do this presentation.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
I've been to one.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
It is so enlightening. I mean I really thought we
recovered and because Sidney, You've walked us through all of this,
but there's still so much that I've learned and that
we heard about.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
So I would say, if you have never.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
Been to one of these, you need to get some
people together and be a part of this. Again, it's
Sidney Williams are Kim Dickerson first Financial Bank, and there
are first Financial banks all over Southeast Texas, but they
don't even have to go in there.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
You go to them.
Speaker 3 (39:04):
Correct. Yeah, we do them on you know, so we
can host them or we can do them off site.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
You know.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
If there's any venues that are better, we'll work with that.
And then the timeframe too, We customize that so if
it's thirty minutes that you only have and you want
us to do it while we one's on lunch, or
if you want us to do it for a whole
hour where we can work with you.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
Yeah, and they're fun. I mean, it's not boring at all.
It's so interesting and all the stories that you tell,
and it's amazing to me. Every time I listen to
one of my it is so amazing. Well, Sidney, it
has been such a pleasure to have you on the show.
I really hope that this has been helpful to our
audience for them to hear ways that they can prevent
(39:42):
themselves from any fraud that's happening. And it's been great
having you share all of your knowledge with us.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
So thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
Hope this has been enjoyable to you. Hope you are
learning something new and I hope you have a great Saturday.
Come back visit us next Saturday at noon. This is
the Dana Simmons Show.
Well, hello everyone, so excited that you could join us
on this beautiful Saturday. I have Sidney Williams with me today.
She is with the Treasury Management department at First Financial Bank,
and if you are in the middle of experiencing anything
that has to do with fraud, well she's got some
(00:21):
good input for you. And let me just say, if
you haven't experienced fraud.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Yet, it's coming.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Unfortunately, we have that running rampant all over our world
right now, whether it's text, messages, emails, in so many
different areas of our life, we are experiencing fraud. So
I want you to stay tuned because Sydney is gonna
help you and give you some tips and some information
(00:49):
about what are some things you can do to protect
yourself from fraud. I was shocked the very first time
I went to her lunch and learn I thought I
was covered. I thought I had done everything, But guess what,
there is so much there. So stay tuned. In our
next segment, she's going to tell us a little bit
about some of that fraud. But before we get started,
(01:11):
I'd always like to give you a little bit of
a tip on where we are in the market. So
right now we are seeing that the market is in
a really good position for buyers. We have an incredible inventory,
more inventory than we've had in several years, so you know,
we're looking at a pretty even market right now too,
a six month to seven month inventory, which is a
(01:34):
good market to begin. We also are seeing interest rates
begin to drop a bit, so we are much lower
than the thirty year average of seven point seven percent.
You're going to find yourself in the sixes typically, and
for some of you maybe even in the fives. So
it's going to depend on a lot of different things
(01:55):
for you. If you need to visit with us about
who do we recommend for mortgage l we'll give my
office a call at four nine eight six six eight
three two six, and we can connect you with those
mortgage lenders so that you can see what type of
loan and what kind of interest rate you can get.
But getting pre approved is the very first step, so
(02:15):
let us assist you and guide you in making sure
you're working with a local lender who understands our local market. Also,
you know, if you're thinking about selling again, we're in
that even market, so it is a great time to
go ahead and get your house ready to prepare for
that spring market that's coming up. So in the next
couple of weeks, I think we're going to have our
(02:38):
listing department talking to you about getting your house prepared
for that spring market. So stay tuned here every Saturday
at noon we give you tips on what you can
do to get your house ready or what the real
estate market is like. But before we get going on
the fraud information, I want to introduce you to Sidney Williams.
(02:59):
This is her time to be on the show, but
she has been with First Financial Bank for a little.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
While, right, Yes, for about eight years.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
So Sidney, tell us a little bit about you. Where
did you grow up? Tell us where you're from.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Yeah, so I've lived invited most of my adult life.
I actually graduated from Vider High School and then I
went to college at Lamar University and got my bachelor's
in business. And First Financial Bank has kind of been
there with me through the way ever since I was
in college. Started off as a teller, and then I
went full time in college and at work, and so
(03:34):
I started doing new accounts and then this role had
opened up and I graduated college and was really able
to focus on my career. So now I'm in treasury
management focusing on fraud and some of the services for
our business customers.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Yeah, and here's what I love about that whole story.
I love that you're a local girl, lady, I should say,
young lady who grew up here, went to Lamar University,
which we are so blessed to have Lamar University here.
What a gift that is that, you know, I've said
it many times here. My kids, my plus kids, all
(04:10):
of them are graduates of Lamar University and it is
such a great university. It allowed you to also work
part time or work and go to school at the
same time by being here locally, and then integrate into
a full time position with First Financial. And so I
think that's part of the Also the joy of First
(04:31):
Financial is that they are so locally minded. You guys
are always doing things to help the local community. What
was I saw you did something recently. Talk a little
bit about that.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
So we actually had our annual day of service recently,
and so we all, you know, had the day off
on Columbus Day and we went to sleep in Heavenly
Peace and we were able to help them make beds.
And one really cool thing about Sleeping Heavenly piece is
that you can do anything, they'll show you how to
do it. So if you've never worked on you know,
like sanding wood or use a nail gun, they're going
(05:04):
to teach you how to do it. But so fulfilling
because they actually give beds to underprivileged children who wouldn't
otherwise have a bed and it's all fully volunteer based,
and so it was really a great day for us
to be able to serve in our community. And we
do things like that all the time with our fraud presentations.
For example, we can go to churches and talk to
(05:25):
you know, any kind of group. It doesn't even have
to be business focused. And we just want to get
the word out there that you know, fraud is happening.
Like you said, if you haven't experienced it, it will happen,
and we just want to make sure that the members
of the community are aware of what's out there.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Absolutely, And I love that you guys were there with
Sleep and Heavenly Peace. I've seen so much good coming
from that organization. And one of the things that they
do is you build the beds, but then you also
provide the bedding correct.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Correct, Yes, So there was the mattress and everything.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Mattress and betting. I see, you know, lots of organizations
collecting that so you could do like bed in a
bag for a twin bed and even just drop that
off at Sleep in Heavenly Peace and be able to
help in that way as well. But that organization started
just out of a need, and then they started meeting
that need and then expanded to the community to get
(06:18):
their help. Well, so excited to have you on the
show today, Sydney. We have a lot of great things
to cover, so don't go away, We'll be right back.
This is the Dana Simmons Show. Welcome back. This is
Dana Simmons. I am joined today by Sidney Williams. She
is the Treasury Management from the Treasury Management Department at
(06:40):
First Financial Bank, Sydney. What's your official title?
Speaker 3 (06:43):
I am a Terasury Management Officer.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Officer, got it.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
So you personally have been the treasury management officer.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
For my office.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Actually, you've helped my office get set up on lots
of different things to help protect us from fraud, which
I'm so grateful for an incredible job. You are a
great communicator, You're very patient and that's what I love
about first financial but also what you do because many
(07:11):
of us, especially me, I'm not knowledgeable about all that,
so sometimes I feel maybe a little more ignorant about
what to do and how to do it and what's
the terminology. You never made any of us feel that way.
You walked us through step by step. Were there weren't
any strange questions. You acted like everything we did was normal.
(07:33):
And so whether or not we're normal or not, I
don't know, but I appreciate you the way that you
worked through all of that with us to assist us
in doing everything we can. And so there is so
much that you do, and we're going to talk about
a lot of those different programs that you have to
help protect people from fraud, not just businesses but also personally.
(07:55):
But let's get started first with merchant services. So on
merchant services fraud, what are some of the common fraud
schemes that's being used right now against many of the
businesses who are taking card payments.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Yeah, so one of the facets of my job I
actually specialize in is merchant services, and all that is
is any business that takes a card payment, I help
facilitate that acceptance, whether that be a terminal, a point
of sale. QR codes are very popular payment portals and
all of that. Those avenues of taking payments, though, do
(08:31):
come with risk and there are some rules that protect
the buyer but can also impact the business when it
comes to disputes.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
I love that you're helping us to understand all the terminology.
So when you talk about merchant services and the people
who take that, it could be it could be someone
who is selling in out of their car that so
merchant services applies to that and they use a little square,
(09:00):
or it could be a large business retail shop.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
So you're talking it's a range of people.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Yes, anybody that is taking a card payment all. I'd
definitely encourage you to listen to this bit because we
are seeing an increase in chargebacks. All a chargeback is
is whenever a consumer or even a business goes to
their bank to dispute a charge, generally you want them
to go to you first. Right, Let's say that they
ordered merchandise and the merchandise was faulty, you would want
(09:29):
them to contact your business so you can remedy that
instead of going to their bank first. But what we're
seeing is an increase of buyers going to their bank first,
or we're seeing what we call buyers remorse, and so
what that looks like is somebody goes to your establishment,
they purchased an item, and then however long later, usually
up to six months, they can dispute that with their
(09:50):
bank and say that it didn't work or they didn't
like it or what have you. And so then you're
stuck trying to, you know, navigate the dispute process to
keep those funds in your account. What happens most of
the time is your payment processor will take the funds
back from that sale, they hold on to it, and
then they will release it or they will send it
(10:10):
back to the cardholder, depending on the determination of the case.
So sometimes that can be as easy as you showing
a receipt and saying, hey, this was you know, purchase,
they did sign off on it, I have had no contact,
and then you get to keep your funds. Sometimes they
will dispute back and say no, I tried to reach
out to you. Then you can go to arbitration, which
(10:32):
goes to your card brands Visa, MasterCard, Discover Amex, and
then they make the determination on who gets to keep
the funds. So while that can be very confusing to
navigate your processor, your bank. If they help get you,
you know, access to merchant services, they'll help you with
that process. But it's very important to know what are
some things that you can do to prevent this from
(10:54):
even happening.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Absolutely, so that was going to be my question. So
how do how do you stop that and how do
you intercept that challenge?
Speaker 3 (11:01):
So one is to have them either sign the receipt
or to chip insert or tap their card. So when
that happens, that will help show that they were physically
in your establishment and that they did authorize a sale.
That prevents any chargebacks or will help you win a
case if you were to have a chargeback from a fraud.
(11:21):
And then what will happen too is to make sure
that you're accessible. So if your customer has an issue
with their product, make sure that they are able to
call you and get a hold of you easily, that
way that they can remedy that with you first. But
the biggest takeaway i alwould say is try not to
key enter those payments on the terminal and really try
not to have them swipe their card. You always want
(11:42):
to make sure that they are chip inserting or tapping
whenever possible, especially if it's a transaction done actually at
your establishment.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
So since this is what you do when you first
meet with a business owner, I'm sure these are all
the things that you go through with them initially.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Yes, correct, Yes, I try to go over all the
best practices that they could possibly do, because we've seen
businesses take losses of thousands of dollars, especially if you're
selling a large ticket item. We actually had a customer
who sold large ticket items and they had someone call
them on the phone and said, Hey, I'm a trucker.
(12:21):
I need to come buy some tires. So I'm gonna,
you know, pay over the phone, and then I'm going
to send my wife and to come grab you know,
the merchandise. And so you know, the story does check out,
so they you know, pay over the phone, and then
the wife picks up the tires. Then a month or
so later they get a charge back for stolen card information.
(12:41):
So what happened was the person calling had stolen card information,
they made the purchase over the phone, and then the
wife came to pick up the merchandise, and now the
business is out the money and the merchandise and so
you know what happened was they did the dispute, but
they didn't have anything signed. They didn't have that digital
footprint that the tap and the chip give you when
(13:02):
you know, pay in person, so they had nothing to
help them other than to file a police report essentially
because they were also a victim of fraud.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
That business, right, how challenging and it is amazing how
smart the criminals are getting so that they know to
do this kind of thing, and so it's so important
that we listen to those who.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Are over this like you guys.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
That's why it's also so important to have a local
bank that you can connect with, a local banker, a
local treasury management officer who can sit down with you
in your business and go through that. Now, talk a
little bit about what is refund fraud.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
So that's something that's been around for a long time.
The point of sale terminals that you see or a
countertop terminal, those can be emulated. And so what happens
is the fraudsters, however they get the information, they will
actually take that coding, that technical information and put it
into a terminal somewhere else. So they basically have created
(14:10):
a dummy terminal of your terminal somewhere else, and then
they take that terminal and they will use that to
make refunds to their card. And so when you process
a refund on your terminal, you're actually taking money out
of your account and giving it to the cardholder. And
so when they emulate your terminal, they're taking money out
of your account and giving it to themselves. And so
one way to get around terminal emulation essentially, which would
(14:33):
lead to the refund fraud, is to look at your
batch reports every day. If you have a portal, go
online and look at your batches on your portal and
make sure that you don't see any refunds that you
didn't initiate. This can also, unfortunately happen with employees. If
you have employees who can do refunds, make sure that
you have them locked down to have to input a password.
(14:55):
And it's very good to delegate authority. So let's say
the only managers are able to shoe refunds and not
just all staff. So there's two different ways that can happen,
either emulation or internal.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
So that is so crazy. I never would have thought
of that.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
So emulation is really they copy your same portal. Yes,
somewhere else and then when they do the refund, they're
getting that cash out. Yes, correct, is so, so my
brain doesn't think that way. And that's what's bad is
that because I never would have even thought about that
(15:29):
if I owned a business that had that. That wouldn't
come to mind unless you came and sat down and
talk to me, which you did on our situation. But
we don't have these We don't have these terminals. We
don't have terminals at our office, so we don't have that.
But wow, that is so enlightening. And when we come back,
we are actually going to talk about debit card fraud
(15:50):
and what are some ways to protect yourself from that.
So you do not want to go away, you don't
want to miss this. This is Dana Simmons with the
Dana Simmons Show.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Welcome back.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
This is Dana Simmons and we are visiting with Sidney Williams.
She is the Treasury management officer at First Financial Bank
and we have been talking about fraud. In our very
first segment, she covered merchant services fraud and the common
schemes that are being used against businesses that are taking
card payments. And if you're a business, you need to
(16:24):
visit with Sydney. There are all kinds of things going
on that you need to.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Be aware of.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
But we also are experiencing things with debit card frauds.
So Sydney, what are some ways for all of us
out there to protect ourselves from debit card fraud.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
Yes, So one of the things that I would recommend
is whenever you're going to a website, like let's say,
you know, any large retailer website. You know, you go
through your checkout process, you have things in your card,
and then to ask you to enter your payment information.
There are services out there that you can enter your
card into, let's say, like the Paypals of the world,
(17:02):
and then it will help you make that payment securely.
So instead of you putting your card information directly into
that large retailer, you can actually put it into PayPal
and that information that's sent over will still process your card,
but you're not actually giving your card information, so that
puts you at less risk for any fraud to happen
on those websites. Websites, as you've probably seen, they can
(17:24):
be emulated a lot of times. We've seen, especially on
social media, there will be like a store closing sale right,
and it'll say, oh, our store is closing down, you know,
due to whatever reason. We have these great sales, and
you click on the link and you're on this large
retailer site. Well, they're actually creating fake websites to get
you on there. So whenever you add that second layer protection,
(17:46):
your card is still process but they don't actually have
your card information to process more fraudulent payments. So definitely
be weary too of any websites on social media advertising
great sales. Go on your browse and actually just look
up those large retailers and make sure you're on their website.
That's one way to help protect you from fraud. Another
(18:08):
option if you have a credit card. A lot of
people think of credit cards as a way to you know,
either make a large purchase or get cash back, which
they're great for those things too, but they also put
a barrier between your account and all of your money
and the purchases and where you're you know, giving that information,
and so you get that float time usually around thirty
(18:28):
days to be able to reconcile and make sure that
nothing is you know, fraudulent before even debits your bank account.
And so if you're gonna make a payment on a website,
or if you're gonna make a payment, just in general,
it's really good to put that on your credit card.
And that way, if there is fraud that hits you
later on, you can dispute that before it even goes
out of your account. So it's really a good way
(18:49):
to make a barrier between your account.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Yeah, and so I love the thought that you said
about maybe even opening a separate checking account.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Yes, actually use this myself. So I have, you know,
my main account that has my funds, and then I
have a separate account. My main account doesn't even have
a debit card. I don't issue checks out of it.
It's just straight for my bills to come out of.
Then I have another account and that's where i'll if
I have to write a check, I will, but i'll
do any debit card purchases. You know, at retailers. Years ago,
(19:21):
they actually had an issue where if you paid at
the pump at gas stations, they had skimmers. And we
haven't seen as much of that, but I'm sure it's
still out there. So it's really good if you're gonna,
you know, make a payment somewhere like that to use
a card that's not attached to your main balance, and
you can limit how much money you even have in
your second account to limit the exposure of your loss.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Yeah, and in one of the ways that I think
that it's helpful for that as well, is that something
that positive pay could also help with.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
Yes. On the check side, absolutely, so positive pay is
really good for businesses if you have to issue checks. Now,
on the consumer side, I would just recommend not issuing
checks if all possible, or using a service like bill
pay to help make those electronic. But on the business side,
sometimes you just have to write checks. It's just a
common way to make a payment. So if you have
(20:15):
to write a check and you have to mail it, especially,
positive pay will put a filter on your account. And
so essentially you would issue a check out and before
you mail it or hand it off, you would put
it into your online banking. You know, all institutions should
have the service, whether it be positive pay or some
other kind of name. You just have to ask them
for check fraud prevention and they'll be able to point
(20:37):
you in the right direction, and so you'll put that
check into your online banking and then it will know
that check is good. If that check is changed, let's
say that they change the amount, they change the name
on the check, then you will actually be flagged and
you can go in and either choose to pay or
return that check, depending on if it's been altered or
if it's fraudulent.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Okay, And one of the things that I know how
been in the last several months or year was we
heard about a situation where at a hotel, a maid
went into the hotel room to clean the room and
the person wasn't there, but they had all kinds of
(21:17):
different checks on that on their countertop.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Yes, they were actually shaving off the name that the
paye was made out to with a scalpel, and then
they were using a device to print on their name.
Fortunately the fraudster was not very smart in this case.
They used their own name and they were cashing the
checks themselves, so it didn't take long for authorities to
apprehend them. But it was a local business. They had
(21:42):
broken into their mailbox it's outside and taken all those
checks that people had mailed to them. We've seen a
lot of fraud too, where the people will put it
in the drop box outside of the post office and
then those are being broken into as well. And so
when you think about it, when you issue a check,
you're giving them the keys your house. You know, they've
got your name, your account number, routing number, your address,
(22:04):
your signature. I mean, there's avenues for a fraud even
outside of a check at that point. You know, I
could take a check from somebody if they gave me
their check, and then I could make my electric payment
come out of their account, you know, because I could
just put that information online. So it's really important to
have those best practices and also those filters put into place.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Yeah, I know we used to write void on a
check and think, oh, no, one can use my check.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
But yes they.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Can, yes, and they can take the information from it.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Yes, and they're actually not bringing it to the bank anymore.
So a lot of times we used to be able
to verify because we had that check in our hands
as tellers, looking at it with our eyes to verify
with what we have in the system. Nowadays, they're not
even going into the bank, so they're able to just
take a picture of the check on their phone and
deposit it into their online banking, you know, and so
(22:53):
it's really quick and they don't even have to go
in person anymore. So things are all processing electronically. That's
why it's more important than ever to have a system
in place to automate that for you because now fraud
is becoming more automated, it really is.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
So one way is don't write checks if you can
help it. Number two, don't leave checks in your mailbox.
And then number three. Have a system like positive pay,
which First Financial has, but your bank may have another
name for it. That verifies the name and the amount
because even if it's the name, they could change the amount.
So it verifies name in the amount that you put
(23:28):
in when the check comes through the system. So all
really good things on if you're writing a check now.
You were talking about the debit card fraud before that,
and so let's say we're not using our check now,
we're using our debit card like we were talking about earlier.
But there are ways that you can before if you
do use your debit card. Because I'm going to tell
(23:49):
you my husband does it to me all the time
and he says, did you charge XYZ and this amount
of money? So tell me what that is.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Yeah, So text alert important to have and you can
do this on your debit card on your credit card,
And what it does is anytime you can set either thresholds,
so anything over X amount, I'll get a text from
or you can say everything. I personally receive texts for
everything I do, and I recommend doing it.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
That way too.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Ken does because it was eighty two dollars just yesterday
and he's like.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Do you charge eighty two?
Speaker 3 (24:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Yeah, but I am hope I love that.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Yes. It gives you the opportunity to know if there
is fraud ahead of time, so you can cut your
card off and our app you can actually go in
as a consumer and turn your card off in the app.
A lot of institutions should offer that for you. And
so as soon as you see that fraud on your
phone that says, hey, there's something I didn't authorize, you
can either respond no and I'll shut your card off,
or you can go into your app and shut it
(24:46):
off yourself. But it prevents additional fraud from happening. Kind
of gives you a heads up ahead of time, and
a lot of times what will happen is the fraud
will try to happen through what we call like a
pre authorization. Sometimes whenever you you sign up for an
automatic payment to come out on your car. You'll see
in your account like a zero dollar, zero cent charge
(25:06):
and it'll say visa provisioning or something similar. And so
if you see that and you never set anything up,
that's a red flag for you to know something's probably
going to try to come out of my account. And
so they'll do either that or they'll do pennies, you know,
a dollar. They'll test it with something very small, right,
and then they'll start hitting you with larger once they
realize that that card is active and processing. And so
(25:28):
that's why it's important whenever you have text alerts, you'll
get the heads up for that small dollar transaction sometimes
before they start hitting you for the large payments.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Yeah, so so many different ways that you can protect yourself.
You just have to be aware of the systems that
are in place, and you have to understand that it
can happen to absolutely any of us and it doesn't
take much for it to wipe you clean, because fraudsters
are incredibly smart. We were just talking about I wish
(25:58):
they could use their smart sphe good and not evil,
but it's not the way it is because we do
live in.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
This evil world.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
So well when we come back, Sydney has shared so
many good things and we are going to talk about
some additional recent fraud with text messages and additional things.
So this is a great show that you don't want
to miss. This may save you thousands of dollars, So
don't go away. This is the Dana Simmons Show. Welcome back.
(26:26):
This is Dana Simmons and I am joined by Sydney Williams,
the treasury management officer at First Financial Blank and Wow.
She has opened our eyes to lots of fraud that
is going on in Southeast Texas and trying to help
prevent that fraud from your business, from your personal life.
(26:46):
And she has gone through a lot of different things.
But we're going to cover a couple of other recent
frauds that you may have experienced.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
I know I have.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
So let's talk a little bit Sidney about the text
messages that we see.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
So one of the most common text messages that have
been sent out recently is toll So you'll you've probably
received them, but you'll get text message and it will
say that you have an unpaid toll and then there's
a long list of consequences if you don't pay it
in time. So anytime that you receive a text message
that's not you know, within the normal that you have,
(27:22):
then you definitely want to report it. On iPhones, you
can actually go in there and you can report it
as junk. So do just either delete it or report
it or both. But there are some like other avenues
that they've tried to exploit, such as UPS or USPS
and AT and T. So I would recommend because I
know I personally do shop online and I do sometimes
(27:44):
get these text messages and they are legitimate. It's to
save those legitimate text message numbers into your contacts. So
I have one that says UPS, and so when UPS
actually texts me, that's the contact that shows up. If
a fraudulent UP text message comes through, then I'll know
because it's going to be a random string of numbers
and it's not going to register to that contact. So
(28:07):
anytime that you have those set up automatically, those are
the ones you want to go ahead and add to
your contacts.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
Now here's the challenge with that, okay, So, and we're
going to talk more about phone calls too, and sometimes
the phone calls that you receive, but if they're making
a phone call, they can copy a number. So, for example,
let me tell you what happened to me. I have
Jefferson County Sheriff's Office in my phone because I have
(28:35):
property Infinet and if I need to call them for anything,
they're already in there. Well, I get a phone call
while I'm at work and it says Jefferson County Sheriff's Office,
and it's the number that I have saved in my phone,
and the gentleman I use the term gentleman loosely on
the other line, says Miss Simmons, you have a ticket
(29:01):
that hasn't been paid, and we have a warrant for
your arrest and I need you to pay that ticket. Well,
at first, I'm thinking I haven't gotten a ticket, but
if I had.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
You know, I don't. I haven't gotten a ticket.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
And so he goes on and he gets firmer with
his conversation and says, if you don't pay this ticket
right now, we're going to come arrest you. And so
finally my brain clicks and I'm like, okay, this is
a scammer, And I'm like, okay, come pick me up.
(29:38):
Go ahead and come get me. You guys know where
I live, you know where I work, Come on over
and I hang up the phone. But I can see
where that would be challenging to someone who's older, who
may not or maybe they did get a ticket. I
(29:59):
mean they could legit intimately have a ticket and then
you're not paying your ticket. So let's talk a little
bit about some of these phone calls that are being
made that are fraudulent.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
Well, like you had mentioned, you know, the fraud store
is getting more firm with you and more urgent. Urgency
is a red flag. So even if you have a
number call you that you know, if there is a
heightened sense of urgency, that's your moment to take pause,
even though instinctually you want to, you know, get nervous
and all that. Take pause, and you can always hang up.
(30:29):
So we actually, you know, with either banks with the IRS,
there's a lot of different phone call scams coming out
where they're spoofing like local telephone numbers. Yeah, and they're
pretending like, you know, we need to verify information for
a wire, you know, trying to just get you to
give them information. Hang up. You know, us at the bank,
we will never be upset if you hang up on us,
(30:51):
because you can just call us back at a number
you know or from the number on our website, and
then we'll make sure that you're taking care of We
can verify if it's fraud or not. You know, we
would rather you hang up on us and lose money,
you know, at the end of the day. And so
any provider that you have that's calling you or you know,
social Security shouldn't call you. But we've seen those happen too.
(31:13):
I actually had someone who shared their information with the
fraudster and by the time they got to the bank,
I helped them call to get you know, to make
sure everything was good. They had actually changed their account
routing information, so their retirement was going to another account
and so we fortunately were able to have them revert
the changes and put a lock on their account. But
(31:35):
I mean, they're just that fast. It took five minutes
for them to get to the bank, right and they
were able to change the information. So just always hang up.
One scheme I did want to talk about that's been
common and what's really happening with technology now is that
frosters are using AI to emulate people's voices. Sometimes you'll
receive a phone call and no one's talking and you're going, hello, Hello,
(31:59):
you know, this is you know, Sidney, and they're trying
to take your voice so they can emulate it in
other situations. So if you had a call from an
unknown number and no one's talking, don't talk. Just hang
up because they can call you back. But what we're
seeing is that they're actually using this information to try
to emulate voices and use it to do a grandchild scheme.
(32:20):
So what they're doing is they're following you on Facebook,
They're going to your social media. They see that you
have grandchildren, they see their ages and their names, and
they'll call and say, oh, yeah, grandma, I'm at I
got arrested. I'm in jail and I need someone to
you know, wire me some money so that I can
make bail and leave. And they sound just like their grandchild, right,
and now the grandparent is very upset and they're trying
(32:42):
to help their grandchild out. And turns out their grandchild's
at home sleeping. So even if you get a call
like that, hang up and call them on the number,
you know, call their parents, you know, your children, and
verify it. Because they're getting smarter and they're working off
of urgency. So just take if you can take nothing else,
just take urgency as a red flag. If it feels
like you need to be rushed, that's when you need
(33:02):
to take pause.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Right.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
And it happens in so many different areas where they
really get you emotionally charged so that you are feeling
the emotions and you feel like you have to act quickly.
And so I agree, I think that is the smartest
thing you can.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
Do, is just pause.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Well, one of the things that has happened to one
of our at one of our properties is a gentleman
called me and uh, he said, he called about one
of our houses that we had listed. Uh, and someone
had taken a picture offline about of the backyard. They
(33:43):
sent this to He owned a tree service company. They
sent this picture and said, I need this tree removed.
And what I'm going to do is I'm going to
send you more money, and I just need you to
send me the balance of that money. And so he
(34:04):
went and they sent him the money. He went and
cut down the tree. He got the money, went and
cut down the tree. Then something in him was.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
Like wait a minute.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Called our office because it had the first sale sign
in the front yard and said, hey, I'm just feeling
strange about this. I need to confirm. I called the
seller and she goes, no, I did not authorize anybody
to do that, and no, I don't want that tree cut,
and so it was a fraud. Let me tell you
(34:36):
what just happened. Like not that long ago, I had
another house that was listed. Someone called a contracting company
told them they wanted them to remove the driveway and
then pour another driveway from that acted like they were
(34:57):
the owners of the property. The contract went and removed
the driveway, and so the owner came home and there
was no driveway there and called me and said, Dana,
what's going on. And about that time, the contractor drives
(35:17):
up to the house and says, well, you authorized us
to remove this, and you were going to pay us
I mean and talk to I mean, that was his
whole scheme.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
I'm telling you.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
I can't even go into all the details, but that
contractor ended up having to pour a new concrete driveway
for the seller because the seller never it was his
dad's house and he was selling it. There was never
an authorization for them to remove the driveway. So the
fraudulent people out there are scheming like crazy. And you're
(35:50):
exactly right, slow down, get the accurate information, and work
towards making that happen. One of the things we're also
seeing is fake proof of funds. There are many sellers
who are saying, I want proof of funds before someone
walks into my house. And so we'll get that proof
of funds and it looks real. But I'll call the
(36:12):
bank and say, I don't call the number on the sheet.
I google and find the bank, call that bank and
they're like, no, we don't have a customer with that name.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
So it's everywhere.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
So Sidney, let's talk about the fact that you guys
do these trainings. So talk a little bit about where
you've done them, how you do them, and if someone
wants you to come talk to their group, what do
they need to do.
Speaker 3 (36:40):
So we are very flexible, So any kind of you know,
way we can get the word out about fraud, we
are happy to do. So we've done you know, we
call it luncheon learns, but they can be breakfast learns.
You know, we're not tied to a timeframe, so anytime
that works for your business or for your church, we
can do it. Towards consumers, we can do it or businesses.
(37:01):
We've had it where businesses have had their administrative staff
come in and we gear it towards their processes and
best practices. And then we've had it to where we've
gone to churches and we've talked to people about just
the consumer side of things and what to look out for.
So we really just work with whatever your needs are.
You know, our goal at the end of the day
is just to help you protect yourself. So if there's
(37:22):
anything that you guys want us to do, all you
have to do is give us a call and we
were happy to work with whoever to get that set up.
We actually have people who are going to walk you
through what we need to make it as easy as possible,
and we just come there and we talk to you guys,
and you know, hopefully y'all get something out of it.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
And there's no charge.
Speaker 3 (37:41):
Correct.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
Yeah, you guys do this just as a way to
give back to the community to try to protect people.
So where would they call, who would they talk to?
How do they do that? If someone's out there going, yeah,
I'd love that for my organization, this would be a
great thing for us to provide.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
How do they do that?
Speaker 3 (37:56):
Yeah? So they can either call me, I'm Sidney Williams,
and then we all so have Kim Dickerson. She also
organizes these as well, so they can call either one
of us. They can call a local branch. Really any
person that works that First Financial bank. You can call
them and say I want to do a fraud lunch
and learn and we will get you taken care of.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
So they can google First Financial Banks call and say
I want to do a fraud lunch and learn. And again,
like you said, it doesn't have to be lunch, and no,
you don't provide the lunch. You provide the services for
free to I mean you talk about it, but they
provide whatever lunch or brunch or whatever they want for
their people and then you guys come and do this presentation.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
I've been to one.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
It is so enlightening. I mean I really thought we
recovered and because Sidney, You've walked us through all of this,
but there's still so much that I've learned and that
we heard about.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
So I would say, if you have never.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
Been to one of these, you need to get some
people together and be a part of this. Again, it's
Sidney Williams are Kim Dickerson first Financial Bank, and there
are first Financial banks all over Southeast Texas, but they
don't even have to go in there.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
You go to them.
Speaker 3 (39:04):
Correct. Yeah, we do them on you know, so we
can host them or we can do them off site.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
You know.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
If there's any venues that are better, we'll work with that.
And then the timeframe too, We customize that so if
it's thirty minutes that you only have and you want
us to do it while we one's on lunch, or
if you want us to do it for a whole
hour where we can work with you.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
Yeah, and they're fun. I mean, it's not boring at all.
It's so interesting and all the stories that you tell,
and it's amazing to me. Every time I listen to
one of my it is so amazing. Well, Sidney, it
has been such a pleasure to have you on the show.
I really hope that this has been helpful to our
audience for them to hear ways that they can prevent
(39:42):
themselves from any fraud that's happening. And it's been great
having you share all of your knowledge with us.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
So thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
Hope this has been enjoyable to you. Hope you are
learning something new and I hope you have a great Saturday.
Come back visit us next Saturday at noon. This is
the Dana Simmons Show.
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For more than 30 years The River Cafe in London, has been the home-from-home of artists, architects, designers, actors, collectors, writers, activists, and politicians. Michael Caine, Glenn Close, JJ Abrams, Steve McQueen, Victoria and David Beckham, and Lily Allen, are just some of the people who love to call The River Cafe home. On River Cafe Table 4, Rogers sits down with her customers—who have become friends—to talk about food memories. Table 4 explores how food impacts every aspect of our lives. “Foods is politics, food is cultural, food is how you express love, food is about your heritage, it defines who you and who you want to be,” says Rogers. Each week, Rogers invites her guest to reminisce about family suppers and first dates, what they cook, how they eat when performing, the restaurants they choose, and what food they seek when they need comfort. And to punctuate each episode of Table 4, guests such as Ralph Fiennes, Emily Blunt, and Alfonso Cuarón, read their favourite recipe from one of the best-selling River Cafe cookbooks. Table 4 itself, is situated near The River Cafe’s open kitchen, close to the bright pink wood-fired oven and next to the glossy yellow pass, where Ruthie oversees the restaurant. You are invited to take a seat at this intimate table and join the conversation. For more information, recipes, and ingredients, go to https://shoptherivercafe.co.uk/ Web: https://rivercafe.co.uk/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/therivercafelondon/ Facebook: https://en-gb.facebook.com/therivercafelondon/ For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iheartradio app, apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.