Archive - April 2025

A strong work ethic is more than just a line on your resume.  It’s the foundation on which employees can build professional growth, teams work most effectively, and organizations become more productive places where employees want to work.  This month’s Star was nominated for the many traits that elevate her work ethic to one admired and appreciated by her coworkers.  We are happy to introduce Natascha Greer, Loan Assistant in our Montgomery office, as our April 2025...

Email account compromise (EAC) is a form of fraud perpetrated on consumers and businesses in an attempt to get you to send fund transfers, ACH transfers and/or check payments.  Email account compromise perpetrated on business customers is known as Business Email Compromise or BEC.

The fraudsters find their targets primarily through social media, publicly available company email accounts, or social engineering.  After the email addresses are harvested, a series of phishing...

Are you unsatisfied with your current star rating on Google, Bing, or other platform? If so, make sure you don’t fall for online review scams.

Some scammers claim they can replace negative reviews of your product or service, add positive reviews, or boost your scores on ratings sites.  However, posting fake reviews is illegal.  Federal Trade Commission guidelines say endorsements — including reviews — must reflect the honest opinions and experiences of the...

Fraudsters love to pose as entities of authority as a fear tactic to get personal or business information and money. Some common entities that scammers try to pretend to be include:

Having a business mentor is generally a great idea, especially if you know them and have met face-to-face. Fraudsters have begun preying on these business-mentor relationships through business coaching scams. Scammers often sell coaching products that promise to “guide your business to making millions!” In reality, the fraudsters leave subscribers without help and in the hole financially.

Read more from the Federal Trade Commission here.

Businesses, just as consumers, also need to take extra care in their responsibility in protecting their and their customer’s information.  Fraudsters have specific tactics to try to scam business clients.

There are many ways a business can see fraudulent activity, but one of the faster growing methods is via online banking. Corporate Account Takeover (CATO) is a form of corporate identity theft where cyber thieves gain control of a business’ bank account by stealing...

ATM and Debit Card fraud is becoming increasingly widespread with the high tech methods employed by criminals. Common methods used by criminals to steal your card information are phishing scams or unsolicited emails, breach of a retailer computer system, and card skimmers at ATMs or gas pumps.

Criminals may even call pretending to be your financial institution’s fraud department and tell you there is an unauthorized charge on your card. They will then ask for your card number,...

Identity Theft

What is it?

It is the act of using someone's personal information illegally and without their knowledge to obtain bank accounts, credit cards, loans, make purchases or file false tax returns. The victim usually does not know this has occurred until they receive a past due or delinquent notice for items that have been purchased in their name or they attempt to file their tax return.

How do they get my information?

These are just a few of...

Every consumer should be aware that Internet fraud is on the rise and should take precautions when purchasing or selling on the internet. In each of the scenarios counterfeit checks are sent and good money is wired out leaving the customer at a loss. Following are current examples of the types of scams that are being played out upon unsuspecting people.

Online Sale Scam

The victim has an item for sale on a public forum. A prospective buyer makes contact with the seller claiming...

In order to protect our loved ones and ourselves, it’s important to be on guard for scams geared toward older Americans or signs that it has already happened. According to the World Health Organization, as many as six percent of our elderly are targeted, and much of this goes unreported.

Financial scams can be especially devastating as many of our elderly live on fixed incomes. Here are four key tips to avoid being the victim of a senior scam.