Glacier FarmMedia – Some producers have lost tens of thousands of dollars to a rising tide of financial fraud, one expert warns, and he wants farmers and agribusiness to protect themselves.
“It’s unbelievable the amount of cases that have come through our organization in the last year and a half,” said Jonathan Neutens, head of agriculture at ATB Financial and one of the speakers at the CrossRoads Crop Conference in Calgary earlier this year. “I don’t know what the percentage would be, but it’s large.”
Why it matters: From phishing emails to cheque fraud to AI voice cloning, criminals are finding more creative and sophisticated ways to steal money and personal information.
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Neutens said the issue involves “all of the banking world.” Financial institutions are introducing tougher safeguards, he noted, pointing to measures like two-factor authentication that requires two separate, distinct forms of identification to prevent thieves from gaining access to online banking accounts.
In response, criminals are getting more creative. They’re going beyond phishing emails and smishing text message scams, both of which impersonate legitimate sources to trick people into revealing sensitive data such as passwords or credit card numbers.
“We’ve had (cases) that occur where someone does a Google search for ATB, clicks on the top link, and the top link happens to be a fraudulent website that looks exactly like ATB’s. And you put in your information, you log in and they’ve got you, and then all they have to do is log into your account and change contact information so they get the two-factor authentication versus you, and then they can start firing up electronic payments.”
Tips
People should double check the source of emails and texts, said Neutens.
“Sometimes the email address or the website address, it might only have one letter that’s different.”
One good practice is to directly type the correct URL for your financial institution into the address bar on your browser to conduct online banking, he said. It is also wise to be wary of emails and texts claiming to be from legitimate sources.
That may mean making an independent phone call to the source to confirm the legitimacy of the message if there are any doubts. Phishing emails can look exactly like those of someone familiar, such as a supplier, which could be due to the supplier’s email being hacked, said Neutens.
“And if their email is hacked, (criminals) watch for the conversation style or what have you, and eventually they send you an email and they say, ‘oh, by the way, you need to change payment to this account, and click on this to make the payment.’”
Clicking that link allows the scammer to watch as people go through the motions of online banking and two-factor authentication. That information is now theirs.
ATB is working to improve its ability to detect fraudulent transactions more quickly by increasing the number of staff devoted to the problem, said Neutens. But if someone gets login information and changes a two-factor authentication, “there’s really nothing we can do about that, because they’ve got it from you in some way, shape or form.
“We can’t stop that because that’s outside of our systems and outside of our control. And then they come in and they log in like it’s you. How is the banking system going to know the difference?”
Cheques are risky business
The biggest source of fraud is cheques, Neutens said, and it’s a growing problem. One of the more interesting scams targets people who send cheques through the mail.
“They’ve written a cheque to someone like John Deere or whatever, like to a supplier, and that cheque gets stolen … a new cheque is done up basically using that bank account information with the same dollar amount, but to a different payee, so when the cheque clears, the customer sees the cheque clear and thinks it’s cleared until the supplier calls him and says, ‘hey, when are you going to pay me?’”
Such crimes have cost some producers tens of thousands of dollars, said Neutens.
“It’s pretty often that farmers can cut a cheque to someone for $40,000, $50,000 or $60,000, and so yeah, we’ve had that.”
Modernizing the funding and payment system by moving away from cheques would be the easiest part of the solution to implement, and producers should stop using cheques if possible, Neutens said.
“They’re just too risky these days, so if you move away from cheques, do that and get into your online and EFTs (electronic fund transfers) and all that kind of stuff with two-factor authentication.”
He also pointed producers to resources on offer from financial organizations to help train clients in recognizing scams and avoid getting caught in one.
Be aware of cyber fraud
Criminals use a variety of methods to steal or corrupt personal or financial information stored online. These include:
Phishing: One of the most common types of cyber fraud. Hackers use fake emails or text messages that trick users into sharing personal information such as bank details.
Malware: Malicious software such as a virus that can destroy, damage or exploit computers or computer systems.
Worms: Malicious software that replicates itself and spreads from computer to computer. Unlike viruses, worms do not need to be attached to a computer program to do damage. They work silently and infect the device without the user’s knowledge.
Ransomware: Cyber criminals use this to lock a device or steal information. They then demand a ransom to restore access or return the information. Payment is usually demanded as a crypto currency such as Bitcoin.
Spyware: Spyware is malicious software that infiltrates a device and monitors activity. Criminals can then steal logins, passwords and credit card information.
Trojan horse viruses: Code or software that looks legitimate but can take control of a computer.
Distributed denial of service attacks: Occurs when hackers attempt to make a website or computer unavailable by flooding it with internet traffic.
– Doug Ferguson is a reporter with The Western Producer.
