By Ray Birch
OSHKOSH, Wis.–Saying it realizes it takes much more than internal defenses to fight fraud, one CU has created a “Fraud Squad” to pull in help from local police departments and, more important, assistance from the communities it serves.
“When it comes to fraud and scams and preventing them, it's community education that is so critical,” explained Anna Allen, VP-marketing at Verve, A Credit Union. “You have to teach people to spot the red flags, to stop fraud right when it is happening. It’s about all of us taking care of each other. For example, when you're talking to a neighbor or a friend and something doesn't sound right, just ask a couple more questions maybe to prevent your friend from suffering a loss.
“That's what this really is about, is educating people on fraud and pulling everyone together to be aware of the frauds and scams,” Allen continued. “This is how we're really going to stop these crimes.”
Toolkit Provided
To reach its more than 63,000 embers and the communities it serves, the $1.5-billion Verve is aligning with a number of police departments to spread the message. The departments, using toolkits from the Fraud Squad website, go out into the community to talk to young adults at local high schools and on college campuses. They visit the elderly—a prime target for scams—going to senior centers and spreading the word, and also show up at community centers and local events.
“The toolkit and information on our Fraud Squad website (fraudsquad.com) provide local police departments with educational materials to deliver a consistent message about what is happening with fraud in our communities,” noted Allen. “A consistent message, that also stays on top of the scams that are happening, is so important if we are to really drive down the fraud rate here.”
Local police departments had been talking to communities about fraud and scams, which have been markedly rising in this market, said Allen, but the efforts were inconsistent and the message was not uniform.
“That is why the police departments reached out to Verve,” said Allen. “They know we are a financial leader in our communities and they know we are committed to consumer education.”
Currently three police departments are part of the Fraud Squad—the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office, the Appleton Police Department, and the Village of Fox Crossing Police Department.
‘Fun & Engaging’
Allen said the objective is to create a fun and engaging awareness campaign around fraud and scams, and believes the Fraud Squad launch video, available on YouTube, does just that. Allen said the spot takes on a lighthearted “superhero” theme.
“A team of ordinary people, law enforcement officers and a credit union are here to help you protect your financial health,” the spot states. “Stay informed, stay alert, stay resilient. We’ll help you recognize the lies so you don't take the fake, and remind you that if something looks phishy, it probably is phishy. Heroes will rise and scammers will fall…”
Added Allen, “Losses from fraud and scams within the community can be devastating. So, we wanted this campaign to really start conversations and be eye-catching. We feel we did that with the Fraud Squad. We wanted to do the opposite of a public service announcement, which can be boring.”
Both Verve and the local police departments in the past year have recognized that scams are growing in number and sophistication.
“This makes every one of us targets,” Allen said. “We need this partnership, between Verve, police departments and our communities.”
Fraud Continues to Rise
Local police departments had been fighting fraud and scams on their own, noted Allen.
“But despite their efforts to work with the public and educate consumers on how to keep their money safe, they said they still were seeing a big rise in fraud, so they came to us,” she said.
Verve has been reaching out to other law enforcement departments throughout Wisconsin to become part of the Fraud Squad, and she said she expects several other departments to join the fight.
“The community reaction so far has been great,” said Allen. “People say they have heard of the Fraud Squad, they like the YouTube trailer, and they appreciate what we are doing. Hopefully we will be able to reduce the losses from all these scams.”