Live Better by Centric FCU
Live Better by Centric FCU
Cards, Fraud and Security, Oh, My!
Unlock the secrets to protecting your finances from fraud with expert insights from Zane Dubois, Centric's Cards Manager. With over ten years of experience in the banking world, Zane joins us on the Live Better podcast to discuss practical strategies for securing your debit and credit cards. From the advantages of mobile wallets to the critical role of EMV chip technology, we guarantee you'll walk away with actionable tips to navigate our increasingly digital financial landscape safely.
Tune in as we share a personal story about an unexpected Amazon alert that highlights the importance of vigilance and quick action when fraud strikes. Learn how to recognize early warning signs, such as small test charges by scammers, and discover why keeping your contact information updated is crucial. We also shed light on avoiding impersonation scams and securing mobile wallets, ensuring you are armed with the knowledge to protect your financial well-being. Don't forget to subscribe for more episodes packed with valuable advice and follow us on our social media channels for ongoing updates.
Welcome back to an episode of the Live Better podcast. I'm your host and Centric Senior Vice President of Marketing, Kelli Green. I'm so excited that you're here. In fact, every month, we post a new episode where I'm joined by a guest to chat about finances and all things living better. Subscribe today so that you never miss an episode. Today we are joined by Zane Dubois, Cards Manager at Centric. We are here to discuss all things fraud and keeping your finances safe. So, Zane, welcome to the Live Better Podcast. It's a joy to have you here so glad.
Zane DuBois:this is an honor to be here. Oh, thank you.
Kelli Green:So tell us a little bit about yourself.
Zane DuBois:So I'm Zane Dubois. I'm card services manager here at Centric. I've been with Centric a little over a year now, kind of fully involved now with Centric Kind of got the flow of things it's actually my first rodeo into. I've always been in banking, but with credit unions, oh yeah, credit unions. So this is my first foray into into credit unions so I kind of figuring out how that works. But credit cards and debit cards they all kind of work across all spectrums so that's been kind of my world for about 10 years. I've been in cards specifically and dealing with different things, maintenance-wise and fraud and kind of dealing with all that. Mainly fraud is where I kind of got into the foray of cards, which is the biggest arena when it comes to cards.
Kelli Green:No kidding, it's so wild and it's growing and growing. And speaking of things that are growing, your family has recently grown by one. So tell us a little bit about yourself. When you're not here managing the cards and fraud, tell us a little bit about what you do in your personal life.
Zane DuBois:So, yes, we've got a third one, our littlest bundle of joy, Jordan. We have our oldest girl, Juliana Jules, and then we have a middle boy which is Jet. We call him Jet and he's just our rough and tumble little boy. So we love him. And then Jordan hopefully will come along and be our peaceful one. That's where we're hoping. So caboose maybe Caboose, maybe If my wife has anything to say about it.
Kelli Green:Oh, I love that. Well, that's so wonderful. And, Zane, like you mentioned being here for a few years but being involved in banking for over 10 plus years you really are an expert at managing all things cards and it's a real delight to have you. You've really helped us so much in streamlining things for a better experience with cards for our members, so thank you for your expertise in that. So just kind of share with us a little bit too. As far as when you've seen, maybe debit and credit card fraud, you know how prevalent really is it today.
Zane DuBois:It's still a problem today. They really haven't let up with fraudsters. You have different scams that come along, different things come and go, different methods are utilized, but by and large I mean you have different technologies that happen to come along and fraudsters or scammers will kind of seize on that particular opportunity. Opportunity. So, kind of like with most things, you can't ever get a step ahead without trying to. You're trying to service the member as best as you can with new technologies and unfortunately the bad actors will come along and try to exploit that new technology.
Kelli Green:So if you could really tell our listeners to some things to help, maybe safeguard, or things to be aware of when they're using their card.
Zane DuBois:Absolutely the biggest thing is keeping hold of your physical plastic, your actual physical card, keeping it as protected as possible and that means not giving it to anybody, not sharing your number with anybody not being over sharing with your number and giving it to somebody, because every time you give your card to somebody that is kind of out there in the world and that's one less control aspect that you have of that particular number or swipe or plastic stuff like that. So that's kind of the number one thing is like safeguarding your actual piece of plastic.
Kelli Green:So what are your thoughts on mobile wallets? Do you feel like that's a more, maybe a safer, more secure way?
Zane DuBois:of payment. I do it actually kind of piggybacks off of the EMV technology that came out a few years ago, so that kind of takes that a much more secure because all of your digital wallets are on your secure device. So it's not actually in the cloud, especially with Apple and Samsung and Google as well. The actual number and the encryption is on the device, not in the cloud, so it's not shared or hackable. It's actually on the actual phone, gotcha.
Kelli Green:So when you say the EMV just for our listeners, you're really referring to the chip. Correct so there is a specific encryption essentially with every transaction, that when you upload your card to your mobile wallet, you kind of have that additional safeguard too. You have the card somewhat because you have the device.
Zane DuBois:Right.
Kelli Green:But I love that, and so a lot of people just don't necessarily realize that why that chip was really, you know, as an addition to our card yeah, that was the biggest leap forward.
Zane DuBois:Uh, and actually the us and studying it was kind of late to the ball game on that. Um, just because I think the convenience factor and the infrastructure that was already built in the US was ginormous when it comes to cards. So all of those terminals had to slowly be upgraded to allow for that and take advantage of that network. Whereas in Europe is a little bit easier to kind of like throw out there because it's not as a big of rollout. It is a little bit easier to kind of like throw out there because it's not as big of a rollout. But US had, you know, landscape-wise, had that huge rollout, so the policies kind of allowed for the slower involvement of that. But the EMV was the biggest leap in protecting the actual cars.
Kelli Green:That's so wild, you know, really thinking about that, you know, and when you talk about the digital wallet, so maybe speak to our listeners too, as far as, yes, they have the physical card, which, in our case, our members are awaiting the new portrait look, but also the tap card feature, so that's an additional safeguard, so to speak, where it's just like using your you no matter what, and it's really, and all the terminals that would have contactless with our new contactless cards would also use the tap to pay feature with your phone does the same exact functionality, just as quick, um, and you get your a lot of times.
Zane DuBois:You can get an e-receipt right there, um, so if you don't want an actual paper receipt, it'll actually on your phone. You'll actually can see your history and the actual wallet as well.
Kelli Green:And the cool thing about it too. I think that, especially when uploading your cards to your mobile wallet and I love the convenience of it, just like you're mentioning, with the tap card, you know, or your remote card feature there One of the things to really consider and think about too is that some safeguards with your phone. So you know you really want to have, whether it's facial recognition, thumbprint or a code that you're entering into your phone, because that's not only just safeguarding your device but it's safeguarding any other real, you know, financial relationships you may have and added to your phone.
Zane DuBois:That's a good point, and that's one thing that's kind of been hard to police and understand and educate is because you got to think of it. Now, that is an access point and that's something that even the regulations is kind of like been slowly not aware of and like you have to now safeguard your phone like you would your wallet. It is a wallet, it's just like having your purse or your wallet and your card. So, yeah, that is a very important to have a now with face id, touch id there's still some phones out there with touch id and stuff like that. So make sure that you're having some sort of passcode and that's also not shared. That's something that's should be just like your pen and your card. That should not be shared with anybody, but somebody that you absolutely trust. So think about it. If you're going to hand your phone to somebody or your wallet, that's going to be the same thing. So if you're handing somebody your phone and you're giving them access, think of it. You're just handing them your checkbook or your wallet.
Kelli Green:You got to think of it that way. That is so true. I'm glad that you mentioned it that way too, because we're involved with it, with banking and cards and we see fraud day in and day out. So someone who is just, you know, maybe a member of our credit union that doesn't really realize they know this is a form of payment, so they're kind of at the mercy of us sharing with them what are the things that they should do? So, if a member suspects there might be some fraud on their account with their card, talk us through what should be the very first thing that, if I've identified that this might be fraud, what should I do next?
Zane DuBois:First thing you should do if you have our car controls and our app and our mobile app. First thing you should do if you have that access is turn off the card. That should be your first option is like looking at it, making sure that you know that that is something you did not do, and turning off the card. If you don't have that capability, uh, you can call us. We do have after hours. If it's during business hours, our mycentric team is wonderful in helping you getting that turned off and getting your new card replacement. Um, if you happen to be in a centric location, I come into it and we're happy to kind of turn that off and help you manage that, because even if you need to turn it off real quick and then come and ask later, that's fine and we can help you if we need to possibly turn that back on, if it's something that's benign, that's not fraudulent, something like that. But if you see something that's not right, first instance should be turn the card off.
Kelli Green:Right, and to your point. To make sure our listeners understand too, is that the first thing that you can do. When you have the MyCentric mobile app, we allow card controls and it's just a toggle of a button. Toggle of a button, that's it, and you just turn off access to your card and to your point. After you've either spoken to someone via text call or even in person, then if you've truly identified that this is fraud, then of course we can replace your card Correct.
Zane DuBois:We can go those avenues to kind of mitigate if something happened to have gone through. We can mitigate that If we need to get another card. If it truly was fraud, that's pretty painless and we can get you a new card ordered either in the center or in the mail or stuff like that. Sure.
Kelli Green:So it's even cards can be provided, like we've talked about many times, and say we have instant issue cards. So that's a beautiful thing. Even if you're coming on as a new member or, in this circumstance, if you have had fraud occur, you can literally get a new card same day. Now, if someone's traveling, do you also ship those to those members as well?
Zane DuBois:We do. We can ship them and actually it's very quick. Usually about seven to ten business days. We can get you a new card in the mail. We have a supplier that's very good. They can get cards out very quickly.
Kelli Green:See, that's great. I love that. It's always. You know, I always think about it. Gosh, having two forms of payment is something that's always a good thing to consider, and at Centric we offer the debit card and a credit card so that if something has happened with one of your payments, you've got a backup, because you just never know and talk to us too. So maybe there are times that perhaps we as the member don't recognize that there's fraud happening on our account. Can you maybe talk about some of the safeguards, maybe the responsibility that Centric plays to help maybe safeguard and prevent our members?
Zane DuBois:Absolutely yeah, we do have a system in place that monitors all of our cards. Absolutely yeah, we do have a system in place that monitors all of our cards, actually across multiple banks and credit unions, and looking at different trends. It will score particular transactions based on the merchant, based on the amount, location, all of that kind of goes into play. So we do have that in place. It's a pretty good safety net. Sometimes it will get things wrong, but a lot of times, by and large, it is a pretty accurate gauge. Um, so if you get a fraud text, you know, make sure that you're looking at that, yeah.
Kelli Green:Because if you don't answer it right away, what's going to happen?
Zane DuBois:They're going to take it. They're going to think, oh, they're not paying attention and I can potentially make some other purchases. That's right. A lot of times, um, what they'll do is they'll. If they happen to get a card number, they'll try to load it on a particular platform. So a lot of times you'll see an initial charge, sometimes for like a zero or one dollar smaller charge. That is just a loading charge. That happens with just about every time that you load it on a particular platform subscription service or stuff like that.
Zane DuBois:So you see something pop up, even if it's something you may have a subscription to something with, like Amazon, sure. And one example actually my mother-in-law, just this past weekend she does do Amazon, but she wasn't making anything over the weekend she got an alert. Luckily, she had alerts turned on her phone, which we do have a centric. You can turn in the control, you can turn off a turn on notifications, notifications for every transaction. So she got a notification from amazon and she said I don't recognize that she called me. I said well, of course, of course he's gonna call me the I guess, the banker in the family that's right but she said, hey, um, I got something from amazon and what do I need to do?
Zane DuBois:and I said did you purchase anything? I don't know. No, I said, well, turn your card off. Yeah, so that's usually a lot of things is, uh, you'll see some initial things and it may be for a merchant that you may have done, but if it's something you did not do, you know you didn't do in that particular time, question it. Look at your um, online banking, um ask somebody that may have had access to your card or something like that, and take action as quick as quick.
Kelli Green:As just as quick as you can and when you're talking about too. If there's something that maybe we as the member don't understand, I want to go back and really hit on that text message that you might receive. That's why it's so critical that you have your updated address, email address and phone number so that if there is fraud that is suspected on your account, our company will send a text message to you to say hey, verify this purchase, is this really you? And you've got a very short time frame to say yes or no. And if you do not respond or you say no, this is not me, you know then you can immediately understand that that card is no longer active.
Kelli Green:I've had that happen to me before whenever, which I'm grateful for that. I was actually traveling out of state and it was just a random kind of situation and I was swiping my debit card at a convenience store and what I was able to recognize too when I got back into my car, I didn swiping my debit card at a convenience store and what I was able to recognize too when I got back into my car, I didn't have my phone with me. It asked is this you? And I'm like, oh, it is me, but time had gone by and my card was inactive at that point.
Kelli Green:But the good news is is, if, once that we have the ability, if we can say, hey, let's have a conversation about this. We call the credit union, we'll try to find a way to work through that, even if it is involving getting a new card. So there's no cost to the member either. If there's ever any fraud to replace that card, it's completely free, absolutely. I love it, and I thank you so much for sharing, too, that real life example with your mother-in-law. If you had not have been there to answer her call.
Zane DuBois:I can just imagine that would not have been a good experience, absolutely.
Kelli Green:Yeah, yeah, she calls me for most thinking bank. I love that. Well, that's because you're just you are. You are a trusted source and you know how you deal with this day in and day out, and so we just really thank you. And so, zane, if there is anything else that you could leave our listeners with, what are some things that you might share with them?
Zane DuBois:I guess be vigilant. You know new technologies are out there with the contactless now that we'll be rolling out with our tap to pay with our phones, with our mobile wallets, but still have your wits or your safeguard your phone? Yes, you never there's. You know, prevalent scam artists. That's kind of making their circuits around. A lot of times they will call and impersonate. That's the biggest thing right now is kind of the impersonation thing. So again, we do have those measures in place that we reach out to you via text or phone, but we're never going to ask you for information. We have the information. Our mySixter team will kind of verify different things, but we're not going to be asking you for very sensitive information, especially like full card numbers and PIN numbers and addresses and stuff like that.
Kelli Green:Those are not things that we ask.
Zane DuBois:That's not something that we ask, especially on a fraud. If we're trying to confirm fraud and especially on the text messages we've seen a few different ones that will. They're trying to scam and spoof our front alerts and they're asking for information. So if you ever have a text from us, the valid ones are going to actually disclose everything that needs to be disclosed. It's going to show the last four of the card. It's going to show the amount and the merchant and it's going to ask you on this date, with this last four of card number, did you make this transaction? It's going to ask you yes or no question.
Kelli Green:And there's nothing else beyond that.
Zane DuBois:Nothing else beyond that You're going to. If you say, yes, this was me, it's going to say okay, thank you, You're, you know, Carry on, Carry on. Brilliantly wordedly. It'll say oh, your card, please reach out to centric to get a replacement card and that's, that's as extent. So we don't ask you. It's not going to give you a link to click on to call. It's not going to ask you to call a number. It's say reach out to your centric representative and that's what. And that's the best thing to do. Especially if you have some doubts. We would rather you just even if it's us, hang up, call back. That's right, Than get involved in somebody impersonating a Centric employee. So if you ever feel hesitant on, am I truly calling Centric? Hang up, especially if somebody's calling you. Hang up, call the number that you know at Centric or come by one of our centers and that way you know you're getting a my Centric or a Centric represent.
Kelli Green:I'm so glad that you mentioned that and to our listeners, because it is so important. The impersonation is times times out of 10, they're calling and it may sound like they're in a very large call center. They're asking very sensitive information like full card number, as you've mentioned, and maybe even their social security number, and those are two things that Centric will never ask for Correct. So it's so very important for our listeners to understand that if ever you are in doubt, just end the call and call our main line, and just for those of you that are listening to, we will add that information into our show notes so that you have that. But this is it's something to really consider whenever you're in doubt, and give them a call yourself. Hang up and call directly. That's the safest way.
Kelli Green:Well, Zane, this has been a real pleasure. Thank you for sharing your expertise with us. Absolutely Thanks, wonderful, absolutely Well, until next time. So thank you for listening to our podcast and tune back in next month for another episode of the Live Better podcast. Don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and to ensure you never miss out on helpful tips. Like us on Facebook at Centric Federal Credit Union and find us at MyCentric. On Instagram, pinterest, tiktok and YouTube, you can find information about today's topic, our monthly blog and more at MyCentricorg. Always remember Centric is federally insured by the NCUA.