MBU Hosts Business Breakfast | Erick Schoenberger on Fraud Prevention
Community members, Maranatha faculty, staff, and students gathered in the Dining Complex the morning of Wednesday, September 23, 2020, to enjoy a hot breakfast and hear Erick Schoenberger’s presentation, “Fraud Prevention in the Age of COVID-19.”
Schoenberger works with high-end customers at Associated Bank in treasury management solutions in Madison. Put simply, he locates cash and keeps track of it.
Schoenberger began his presentation by stating how impressed he is with the campus’ response to COVID-19. He encouraged the students to take the virus seriously and continue doing what they’re doing to stay safe.
Early in his presentation, Schoenberger pointed out that the bank fraud situation today is not that different than five years ago. While there are many different types of threats, COVID-19 has not created new threats. It has, however, increased the number of fraud instances.
Schoenberger spent a few minutes discussing the most popular method of fraud: Phishing emails. There are two main ways phishing emails work:
- You click on something in the email and it downloads/installs software.
- You click on a website link and enter login credentials.
While phishing is popular, Schoenberger said, “Check fraud is king.” Wire transfer fraud is slightly more serious because once the transfer happens, you can’t get the money back.
Schoenberger encouraged students to explore electronic banking to help catch fraud. By checking your bank account daily, you will have a better idea of where your money is going.
He also gave them a few best practices to consider when entering the business world:
- Minimize your accounts
- Protect your IDs and passwords
- Online/electronic banking
- Check scanning
- ACH – blocks and filters
- Positive Pay – check fraud prevention done by the bank.
- Verify, verify, verify. If any of your vendors give you instructions to change their banking information, mailing addresses, etc., call the company and verify. Don’t take anything for granted.
After a Q&A session, Schoenberger ended the presentation with two tips for creating strong passwords:
- A combination of symbols, capital letters, and numbers.
- Have a different password for every account.
You can view the entire presentation here.
The next business breakfast is October 15, 2020, with Susan A. Marshall, author, speaker, and Founder of Backbone Institute, LLC. Register now.