A Message From Our CIO
My name is Travis Frey and I have had the privilege of being the Chief Innovation Officer at Dover Federal for about 3 years and in the Credit Union industry for over 18 years. I lead the information technology, marketing, facilities, and back office support services for the Credit Union. With my background in information technology, I believe that for Dover Federal to be successful, we must leverage technology to create a better member experience with security and convenience finding balance in any application. For the past several years, Dover FCU has been investing heavily in an infrastructure that will create a foundation for the Credit Union to leverage emerging technology, implement deeper system integrations, and continue our focus on data security to protect our member’s personal information. I could write about the future and the exciting changes we are making to improve our digital offering in the coming months. I could write about future integration projects and future frameworks we will be adopting, but I wanted to take this opportunity to address some simple things you, as a member, can do today that would help protect your data and your accounts! All those exciting future things are coming, but I feel compelled to help you with a few tips and tricks to protect your information now.
ATM skimming is a common form of fraud that is happening in our communities every single day. This is a tactic where the criminal will overlay a simple device on the card reader of an ATM in order to capture your card number, expiration date, and PIN. This fraud is easy to commit and typically difficult to catch as the criminals have expanded to anywhere you insert or swipe a card (gas stations, local grocery stores, etc.). The bad guy will place a very small device and overlay or insert it into the card reader. These devices are paper thing and can be as small as a pencil eraser in size. The device will record card information digitally and then the bad guy can use it later, potentially draining your account! Below you can find a few simple steps you can take to reduce the chances of being a victim:
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Stick to EMV - Use the EMV option to insert the chip side of your card at the merchant terminal whenever the option is present. This added layer of security makes it impossible to skim the information on your card. With this being said, choices like requesting cash back at the grocery store where you inserted your card vs. a gas station ATM is usually the safer bet.
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Wiggle it - If you are going to swipe, grab whatever you are swiping or inserting your card into and pull on it, look for any loose parts, or anything out of the ordinary. The overlays are small, but can be detected by pulling and inspecting the card reader on the machine. I recommend using a financial institution ATM as those ATMs are a bit more secure, or, if you need cash, request cash back when you make your purchase (see #1 above).
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Be Consistent - If you prefer the convenience of pay at the pump, try to use the same gas station and the same pump each time. While that may not be feasible, it can make it easier to trace back an issue or a problem.
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Monitor your accounts - The old way was to “check your statement for charges you did not make”. The new way might be to use CardValet (an interactive debit and credit card monitoring app) to lock your plastic when not in use. Perhaps logging into mobile or online banking frequently to look for anything out of the ordinary.
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Report it - We have anti-fraud systems and artificial intelligence scanners that look for anomalous activity. We are updating this solution to text members when a transaction scored high due to fraud to make it easier. Watch our website and watch your email in the coming weeks to learn more. If your report fraud, we can begin our dispute process, launch an investigation, and begin to correlate patterns if more reported activity gets reported to us.
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Never give your card and pin to anyone - It is unfortunate, but we do live in a society where trusting others is no longer viable. We see internal family fraud all the time where the grandparent grants the grandchild access to a debit card and a PIN to pick up groceries only to find out later that the grandchild was performing unauthorized transactions. It can become challenging for the Credit Union to intervene in family fraud.
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Online shopping - Try to stick to reputable sites and use a credit card instead of a debit card if possible. When you shop online with a debit card and a criminal potentially steals your card info, they can take YOUR money from your checking and savings with a debit card, BUT if you use a credit card, the bad guy is using Dover FCU’s money and there are added protections with credit cards online.
The reality is that the criminals are really good at what they do. They always seem to be several steps ahead of what we can do to protect ourselves. Dover FCU is committed to investing in technology that will help reduce this risk, however, a large component is human behavior and the actions we take on a daily basis that add to those risks. We see just about every possible scenario imaginable and in some cases, it could have been prevented with some practical steps as outlines above.
I look forward to our future at Dover FCU! We have a new checking account product from KASASA that will provide some incredibly competitive rewards, we have an update coming early next year for our online banking, mobile banking, and bill pay that will position us for future digital growth and add new layers of security to our “digital” branch, and we are constantly looking for innovative ways to change our internal processes to make it easier and more secure for you the member, to do business with us!
Looking forward to serving your needs,
Travis Frey,
CIO, Dover FCU
