Ben Garbacz/Daily Mining gazette From left, Superior National Bank Operations and Information Technology Director Kate Brogan, Houghton Chief of Police John Donnelly and Secret Service Special Agent Austin Hunt take questions during the fraud seminar in Hancock.  Each speaker provided examples of fraud and ways the bank and government can assist with preventing it.

HANCOCK — Superior National Bank held a seminar at the Finnish American Heritage Center Wednesday revolving around various types of fraud that individuals or businesses can fall victim to and how to avoid them. The seminar was presented by Superior National employees, Houghton Police and the U.S. Secret Service.

The first presentation was by Special Agent Austin Hunt of the Secret Service. Hunt works out of the Secret Service’s Western District of Michigan which includes the entire U.P. and is based out of Grand Rapids. Hunt began with an overview of the work the Secret Service conducts in the country, and explained the Secret Service does more than protect the current and former U.S. Presidents. Hunt said the Secret Service also investigates financial crimes and safeguards the nations’s financial structure and payment systems. In the modern day there is a heavier focus on cyber crime.

Hunt described various types of fraud including romance, investment, tech abuse, government imposters, grandparent, inheritance and lottery. All these forms of scams rely on their victims believing the authenticity of the scammers reaching out to them to provide a fake service, companionship, collection or reward.

Hunt presented statistics the FBI gathered in 2023 to showcase the impact of financial fraud across the country. Of reported cases, there were 39,570 cases of investment scams, 17,823 romance scams and 37,560 tech support scams. He said there is a rise in romance and investment scams, which Hunt said have become more sophisticated. He Michigan ranks 15th of the U.S. states for monetary losses due to fraud.

One of the topics Hunt dedicated time to was Business Email Compromise (BEC), an information scam which gathers information from a company or impersonates an employee. When a criminal gains access to email accounts, they auto-forward emails for surveillance and then delete them to avoid detection. When criminals have access to business accounts, they can request payments from entities under the guise of a professional business. Hunt said BEC scams have a 5,000 percent rate of return.

“When we start looking at the rules and the passwords of company emails, a lot of times what we do end up finding is that businesses have never set up, their admin privileges for those email accounts,” Hunt said. “And what I mean by that is for Microsoft, old 365, the business model is very expensive, so a lot of people buy a personal model.”

Hunt also recommends individuals and businesses as added security regularly change their passwords, avoid the same password for multiple accounts and to set up multiple factor verification to avoid having anyone infiltrate their accounts.

Superior National Bank Retail and Deposit Banking Director Brian Donnelly gave a presentation on frauds that are common in banking systems and what tools a bank can provide for fraud mitigation. Donnelly highlighted the significance of debit card fraud, given it is one of the most prevalent forms.

“The grace that we provide is that the card limits are restraining the losses you’re going to incur,” he said. “So if you’ve ever been annoyed by the cap that you have in your spending whether it’s your debit card or whichever one you’re going take out, the reason for that is because it’s the most active fraud channel they’re going to seize and we’re basically just trying to protect you.”

Other tools that were discussed included online alerts sent to someone after a purchase is made to help monitor an account and capped spending set by an account holder. Donnelly explained a common way someone gains card information is from someone handling the card taking a picture when they take it for a purchase.

After the presentations the speakers, including Houghton Police Chief John Donnelly and Superior National Bank Operations and Information Technology Director Kate Brogan took questions. Brogan also went into further detail of the protections Superior National Bank provides, and her fondness of its system.

“This is where I’m really happy that we have really rigid procedures for wire transfers involved process for cash withdrawals,” Brogan said. “I know rigid is not a word you want to hear from a community bank and being flexible is what sets us apart, but when it comes to fraud controls having some pretty tough guardrails, that’s what really helps us.”