Farmers & Merchants State Bank to host fraud seminar
News | Published on December 10, 2024 at 6:09pm GMT+0000 | Author: Tucker Henderson
0By Tucker Henderson
Reporter
These days fraud is at an all-time high, leaving many consumers with financial problems stemming from this increasing variety of scam work. The Farmers & Merchants State Bank of New York Mills and Elevate of Otter Tail County have teamed up to host a Fraud Forum to help raise awareness and educate the community on this topic.
The idea began after members of Farmers & Merchants State Bank attended a similar forum in Detroit Lakes and found it really informative and thought that it would be beneficial to the community.
“We had attended one in Detroit Lakes that the Department of Homeland Security had done,” said Stephanie Von Ruden, Compliance Officer at the bank. “They did a really great job explaining fraud to the general consumer and it was something we wanted to bring here because Detroit Lakes was too far out of the market area.”
“From a pure banking perspective, fraud is increasing so fast and it’s getting so smart,” said Latham Hetland, Loan Officer. “We see it every single day.”
Special agents from the Security Investigations division of the Department of Homeland Security will be presenting on the many ways to protect individuals against scams including red flags to watch for, how to report fraudulent activity, common scams targeting consumers, and the new ways scammers try to deceive consumers.
“They are a Minnesota operation and when I had talked to them after the one we attended in Detroit Lakes, they were like, ‘yeah, we would love to come,’” said Von Ruden.
“They’re focused on awareness and education,” said Hetland, “Which is super cool.”
This event is open to the public and the bank states that it is “invaluable to both individuals and businesses.”
Anyone and everyone is a potential victim to fraud, so it can’t hurt to learn about the many common ways the increasing form of scamming.
“They bring a lot of real life scenarios into the pictures,” said Von Ruden. “These are things they’ve seen.”
“There’s a lot of stuff about new ways that scammers are conducting fraud and how to be aware of them, to be diligent about things that we’re not event thinking about yet,” said Hetland. “Hopefully, people take away some good techniques at how to spot fraud and detect it and avoid it.”
While the banking industry continues to see a rise in fraudulent activity, Farmers & Merchants State Bank is taking an active role in trying to bring education and awareness about the subject to potentially decrease the amount of effect scammers might bring to the region.
“What we’re hoping for is that we’re saving our community lost money,” said Hetland. “Fraud’s not good for anybody. Hopefully, people bring questions about things that they see and what they’re doing and they can get some answers on that too.”
“Even if it just helps one consumer,” said Von Ruden, “That would be great.”
The Fraud Forum will take place from 1:30-3 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 17 at the NY Mills City Hall Ballroom at 28 W Centennial 84 Drive. Cookies and coffee will be served. Please register at https://elevate.events/fraud-forum or contact the Farmers & Merchants State Bank at (218) 385-2300.