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Michael Larson, commercial market president at First Interstate Bank, shared one of the things that keeps employees at the institution busy on Monday and Tuesday mornings during a Community Fraud and Cyber Security Training session at the Fort Dodge Public Library Saturday morning -- fraud.
"On Monday and Tuesday at our bank, the No. 1 thing is helping our customers with fraud from over the weekend," Larson said.
Regardless of the con, they all want the same thing.
"They're doing it to get your money," he said. "These people know how to prey on their victims. They attack people on the weekend. There's a gap of time till the bank is open again."
One of the newest scams being run involves using AI to clone someone’s voice so the call the victim is getting sounds legitimately like their son, wife, grandchild or spouse.
Larson said to hang up.
"Call the number you have for them that you know is good," he said, "not the number they provide you."
Larson also gave another tip when it comes to communicating with family.
"Have a code word to use in conversation with your relatives," he said.
Using your computer can unwittingly let hackers and fraudsters have access to your financial information.
"Don't click on links or popups," he said. "They're a way to infect your computer. If it looks goofy, it is goofy."
That includes that wonderful free WiFi.
"Public WiFi is an awesome thing to have," he said. "Just don't use it for your financial needs."
Once a scammer gains access to a victim's account, they usually don't go in and empty it the first time. They test the water first to see if the victim notices. It's very often suspicious small charges.
Unfortunately, if someone is cleaned out, there's often not a lot that can be done.
"After the fact, you have very little success in getting your money back,” Larson said. "Once it's gone, it's gone."
The scammers are out of the reach of local law enforcement.
"The Fort Dodge Police Department has no jurisdiction in Ukraine," he said. "They're probably not going to recover your money."
He stressed that being a victim is just that, it's being a victim. Anyone can fall for it. Scammers are good and know exactly how to prey on people.
"This happens here, this happens in Fort Dodge, this happens in Manson, this happens in Traer," he said.
Email is another avenue for scammers to get into your finances.
Nobody is safe from it.
Randy Kuhlman, who helped with the presentation, said it's a problem for him too.
"I can't trust anything in my email," Kuhlman said. "I probably get five scams a day. I have people call me if they're going to email me something."