First & Peoples pays $1,500 for flood insurance violations
Issued by FDIC
Social networking. It seems to be a case of "damned if you do, and damned if you don't." This informative webinar will discuss the pros and cons of embracing this technology from the perspective of bank management and risk management.While the bank wants activity on its social networking site, too much activity may be bad. We will provide you with guidance for crafting a "social media" policy that will strike a balance between having a policy that is so restrictive as to create potential liability and having no policy, thereby depriving the bank of potential defenses and legal advantages. We will also examine the risks of advertising in a social networking environment.ACH Rules: Review and Update
June 20—
by John Burnett
Successful bankers are able to adapt to change, and change is no stranger to the ACH activity that banks process day in and day out in increasing volumes as more and more monetary transactions are shifted away from the check clearing channel into the electronic interchange channel of automated clearing house activity. And as ACH volumes grow, the ACH network makes changes, both to enhance its current transaction handling and to implement new products and services that can help make the network even more valuable to the thousands of banks that use it, and, of course their depositors. This program will cover all the significant changes in ACH rules.
Network and Internet Security Best Practices
July 20—
by Susan Orr
Security breaches, identity theft, and data leakage dominate the headlines. At the same time, regulatory requirements and expectations increase, and those responsible for security try to keep pace. Along with protecting your customers from unauthorized access to their information and identity theft, you also need to protect your institution's intellectual and proprietary information and ensure that its reputation stays above reproach. In this presentation we will cover some of the threats facing institutions today and explore some of the methods for securing your network and protecting your valuable information assets.
Security Products
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The Beginning Security Officers Series!
I.D. Checking Guide US (2012) -- FREE Shipping!
Privacy Police Sticky Notes
Welcome to the June issue of Security Spotlight
In this month's Security Spotlight, bank robberies are becoming a "family affair" while forgeries, ATM fraud, and phishing were high on the crime totem pole in May.The FBI has issued its 2011 Internet Crime Report, which is chock full of complaints from impersonating an FBI agent, identity theft, and advanced fee fraud. See what your fellow BOL users are chatting up in the Bankers Threads and check out some new (FREE) security tools!
All in the Family
Double Trouble - At a Chase bank robbery in Suffolk County, New York, when two men pulled their heist - one producing the demand note to the teller and the other as the getaway driver - bank staff only needed to recall the identity of one of the men.That's because the second bandit looked just like the first one. The thieves, Daniel Amarosa and Cory Amarosa, are identical twins. The dynamic duo was arrested minutes after fleeing the bank after a bystander spooked one brother into abandoning the other when Cory, the driver, realized the witness was onto them and sped off before his twin got to the car. Police quickly tracked down the vehicle and Cory, and found Daniel sneaking around a nearby parking lot. The brothers were each hit with $200,000 cash bail and $400,000 bond at their arraignment, and were given matching outfits to wear.
The Family that Robs Together...
They say the family that plays together, stays together.Three Florida siblings will be spending the next 20 to 32 years in prison together for a cross-country crime spree that involved a violent bank robbery in Georgia. The two brothers and their sister, dressed in black and wearing masks, entered a Valdosta, GA bank in August and fired shots into the ceiling. The three also are charged with firing shots at a police officer in Florida during a high-speed chase following the robbery. Authorities in Florida said all three siblings had been living together and each has a prior criminal record. At their May hearings, Ryan Dougherty, 22, was sentenced to 18 years; Lee Grace Dougherty, 29 years old, received a 24-year term; and Dylan Stanley-Dougherty, 27, will spend the next 32 years in prison.
Check our Bank Robbery page for photos and information on the latest robbery suspects. Of the 30 unknown bank bandits featured in our suspects gallery for May, only four were not wearing a hat or sunglasses. Asking customers to remove hats, hoods and sunglasses could help reduce the number of bandits who target your bank. If you don't have a sign asking customers to remove their hats and sunglasses, purchase one now from the Banker Store.
Robbing and Skimming
Phishing is a Year-Round Sport - In our Threads of Interest we link you to a discussion on social engineering because it often makes people give up logon credentials one way or another. The threads also have a discussion on suspicious emails, and here?s why. There is a sophisticated email supposedly from PayPal. It has a link to a log on page that you already know isn't valid. But people are falling for this scam. Once logged in, they're asked for personal and financial information. PayPal accounts can then be hijacked as well as facilitate identity theft. Security officers need to remember that employees and customers need education and warnings when these scams are discovered.
PayPal is certainly not alone. The press has had recent reports of a similar scam on AmEx cardholders.In this variation a web page is "loading" and the customer is redirected to a site that has the BlackHole Exploit kit. Then malware is installed and the data is compromised.
Funny Money - Depending on where you are doing business, you may or may not care about the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. But the RCMP recently worked with the U.S. Secret Service when they raided six locations in Quebec and made four arrests. They recovered nearly $1 million in counterfeit $20 notes. The efforts of these agencies also dismantled the crime group's ability to produce millions of dollars in high quality fake currency. Some of the crime group's money had been distributed in Quebec and various U.S. cities. One interesting point is that the money was printed using an offset press, non-sequential serial numbers were being applied and the bills included holographic features.
Personal ATM - Thieves are doing what they can to hone their craft and steal innocent victims' money. In Nashville, when Pavan Voleti was arrested, he had an ATM in his closet. It is believed that Voleti was using the machine to test fraudulent cards and the skimmers and cameras designed to be used on your ATMs.He bought the ATM, but not the 1,900 account numbers he had. He?ll serve 15 months in a federal prison, and pay $275,000 for possession of device making equipment and possessing counterfeit credit cards.
OREO With a Bomb on the Side - It seems these days that employees need to be security conscious at all times, even when reviewing Other Real Estate Owned. In Detroit a bank has OREO property and a couple of employees were going to take photos of the vacant home. They were greeted by a squatter who had a gun and a pipe bomb. The employees called the police who did respond and arrest the suspect. He was reported to have been armed in the past as well, as he was arrested three times for carrying a weapon. The bomb squad was called and secured the pipe bomb. The squatter claimed that had been his parents home in the past.
2011 Internet Crime Report from IC3 - The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) released its internet crime statistics in May. Think about the warnings and training referenced above, and consider that the IC3 received 26,000 complaints per month. Three top complaints include a thief impersonating an FBI agent, identity theft, and advance fee fraud. The top three states for complaints are California, Florida and Texas. You can find more information in the 2011 Internet Crime Report.
Sample Scam Letters - More than once we?ve read about a teller who stopped a customer from cashing a check they believe is bogus. But the customer insists they really are selling their car to this gentleman and will ship it to him in a week or two. But first they want to send him back his $8,000 over-payment for the car. Yes, it?s a scam. But the customer doesn?t recognize this. Show them the assortment of Phishing & Scam Letters on BOL and they might just find their letter in the bunch.
Alerts & Threads
Alerts and Counterfeits
If you are looking for peer-to-peer discussions with other security officers, the public security forum is available for general topics about security. Recent topics include discussions on social engineering and what may happen when you call an employee and ask them for their system password. You might be surprised what is happening in the Fun Social Engineering/Vulnerability Test thread.
Have you heard of a requirement to have an analog telephone in each branch? You can read more about this and how it may help your disaster management program in the Analog Telephone thread.
The Private Forum area has two security sections where more sensitive discussions take place over topics like cash missing from Fed shipments and what you should be looking for, unusual emailsfrom regulators, and a lot more.All these topics and are being discussed in the Private Security and Private +Law Enforcement forums.
To comment in the BOL threads you must be a registered user. You can register here. If using your bank email account, you will be given access to the private forums. If you are already registered for the threads, but don't yet have access to the private forums, using your bank email address send a request for access to andyz@bankersonline.com. Once your registration request is approved, you can access the Private Security forum here.
Forgeries, ATM Fraud, and Suckers -- Oh, My!
May 1 was Law Day in the U.S., but lawbreakers didn?t miss a beat. The month started like every other month, with another batch of BOL CrimeDex alerts. The Santa Barbara County Sheriff?s Department started things off with a report on forged stolen checks. Chicago police followed with an alert on a series of alleged fraudulent ATM withdrawals. In that case, photos of the ?thief? look a lot like the victim sporting a phony beard and mustache. On May 2, many CrimeDex subscribers received an alert about 42 counterfeit payroll checks cashed in Texas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Maryland and Tennessee. The good news (for the paying bank) -- all the checks were caught by a positive pay system and returned unpaid. The victims? Most were check cashing outlets. Mid-month brought a message from an investigator at a major bank looking into a California company offering homeowner seminars on eliminating debt using worthless kits (available for sale at the seminars) that the homeowners try to use to get their mortgages paid off. In a reported case of new account fraud, a single individual opened multiple new accounts with a bank in the Mid-Atlantic region, using various SSNs and aliases. In each case, funds were withdrawn before the checks used to open the account were returned unpaid. The bank reportedly has had this guy arrested four times and he keeps returning. You might wonder which one isn?t able to learn from its mistakes, the crook or the bank.BOL CrimeDex can help your bank recover losses through cooperation with law enforcement, retailers and other bank security professionals. Subscribers can also help avoid losses by using CrimeDex alerts as training examples for staff members.
CrimeDex is now FREE to registered members of the Bankers' Threads
Private Security Forum! Get the details and subscribe now!
Blogging on Facebook
Are we friends yet? Jump over to Facebook and ?Like? BOL so you don?t have to wait weeks to read some of our posts. You have a morning glory procedure so employees know it?s safe to enter the bank. But have you tested your opening AND closing procedure lately? In our May 7th FB post, you?ll read why employees must be aware of their surroundings and how these security procedures are designed to keep them safe.Read the where, why and how on ourFacebook page.
We have three new tools that may be of interest to you this month. If you are involved in your BSA program, your ears perk up when you hear that a commercial customer has an ATM on-site and it isn't yours. Who does own it, how much of your customer's money might be used to replenish it, and how well do you know your customer? You have questions that need answers. Take a look at the new Private ATM Checklist added to Banker Tools.
Say a new branch manager calls and asks about security footage from their lobby camera from a month ago ? they ask if you have it and you want to know "why?" - a reasonable question. When the response is that there is a suit against the bank for a slip and fall victim, you and your management will want to gather all of the facts regarding the incident. We have a Suspicious Incident Report form designed for cases just like this. No need to create your own, simply download the one provided by Dana Turner.
Checks, UCC 3 and 4. What is legal and what is not? What responsibilities does the bank have and where does liability fall when there are problems? Gene R. Elerding of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP has a 137 page book for you, The Check Book. It can be used for training and serve as a valuable resource.
Did we mention all these Banker Tools are FREE?! You can find these and more in the "Our Newest Tools" box in the BOL Banker Tools
age.
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