NORWALK, Conn. — The Internet may have created a way for credit unions to be more relevant and convenient to members, but it has also created an infinite venue for identity thieves, fraud and scams.
Affinion Security Center has developed a product as part of its Enhanced Fraud Protection Plus suite called Card Patrol that monitors Internet chat rooms where thieves buy and sell debit and credit card numbers and alerts credit union members if their information has shown up.
Over the past six months, Affinion has added 100 financial institutions as Card Patrol clients.
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"Card Patrol is a special automated piece of technology that goes into cyberspace to see if your information is out there," said Dan Clements, vice president of Affinion. "If your card hits the room, you're going to get an e-mail or call within the hour."
When a credit union signs up for an Affinion security product, Clements said, they take care of everything. Affinion sends a training team out to the credit union and will notify a member if his or her information shows up in a chat room.
"Credit unions really need to have a full, complete suite to fully protect their members," Clements said. "Credit unions have been really good in the last six months reaching out and asking 'What products do we need to protect our members?'"
Wayne Conte, executive vice president of sales, deals specifically with Affinion's credit union clients and said that targeting members with platinum cards is becoming a trend among thieves.
"Once they know that you have a platinum card they will target you. They'll go to ancestory.com and find information on you. They put together a mosaic on you, run a credit report and then it's off to the races."
Clements said that trends in the fraud and identity theft world right now include phishing, shoulder surfing to get pin numbers so that cards can be duplicated with magnetic strip information, and online credit card selling with Social Security numbers. Clements added that now, too, thieves can go to company Web sites like Dell and open a credit card with your information and order themselves a laptop.
"Financial institutions are using new tools to stop these trends with double-tier authority and out-of-wallet questions, but hackers can get access to those secret questions as well. You build a 10-foot wall, and they're going to build an 11-foot ladder," Clements said.
Conte said that he feels that credit unions are constantly looking at developing new products and services, and he thinks that they've done an excellent job trying to stay ahead of the curve.
Wade Highlander, vice president of operations at Emery Federal Credit Union in Cincinnati, said that his credit union started to search for a security package last year and decided on Affinion's package with Card Patrol.
"They had the total package from A-Z, and it's been well received by members," Highlander said.
He said that when they first got the Card Patrol product, they sent out a bulk mailing to the credit union's more than 14,000 members and got a 2% return, which is a good return rate on a bulk mailing.
Highlander said that within the credit union industry specifically he has noticed e-mail scams and cell phone scams as trends. He also said that fraud is getting harder to detect on a personal level. A few months ago, Highland said, a member got a scam letter in the mail on Toyota Finance paper.
"There's an automatic comfort level because they feel they're talking to the company. It's getting harder to detect especially among the elderly."
Todd Smith, director of corporate communications at Affinion, said that the thieves that are selling credit card and debit card
information are using the Internet to operate outside of the United States so it is becoming extremely difficult to track them down.
"They're like gypsies they're here today and gone tomorrow," Smith said.
Smith said that ID theft is spiraling out of control as the fastest growing crime in America. Over the past five years, there have been 45 million victims of ID theft, and there's an ID theft in America about every 3.5 seconds.
With the current economy, Highlander said that he's heard a heightened concern among members about fraud. "People are more concerned about ID theft and our partnership with Affinion helps to put them at ease, and it also puts us at ease that we know we are protecting members."
On top of the partnership with Affinion, Highlander said that Emery offers financial awareness classes and a personalized wealth well-being class to members. Also, if an employer in Emery's field of membership has a cut-back or lays off people, the credit union will provide the members with education on protecting themselves during a time of need.
"If people are bad off they're more likely to be hit by a scam because they're more likely to cash a fraud scam check because they need the money," Highlander said. "No matter how careful you live your life though you can be an automatic victim just by picking up the phone or answering an e-mail."
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