B.S.A. Corner

The saying “April showers  bring May flowers ” comes from a short poem by Thomas Tusser written in 1157. For all of you risk and security officers this March and April saw cybercrimes, moneylaundering, mail theft and check fraud and workplace violence run rampant. Two recent cases really grabbed this B.S.A. (“Bald, Short and Active”) guy’s attention.

In Iowa, over the St. Patrick’s Day  weekend, five cities in Iowa - Storm Lake (population 11,292), Rockwell City (population 2,256), Sac City (population 2,023),Pocahontas (population 1,870) and Rolfe (population 511) saw multiple individuals (15 to 30 people) present fraudulent payroll checks drawn on a local dairy to be cashed. Losses totaled over $50k. This is a prime example of what I have coined “branch tour fraud.” In a recent presentation at an ICBA Fraud Seminar I discussed what the criminals were doing and how to combat it. FinCEN has just issued 2023 Advisory Alert- 003 2/27/23 Nationwide Surge in Mail Theft and Related Check Fraud. I am sure your regulators will be asking you about it in your next regulatory examination.

In April in Louisville, KY an employee (who was about to be terminated) came into a staff meeting and shot and killed five staff members and wounded eight others including a police officer responding to the scene. When these types of violence occurred in the workplace in the mid 1980’s they were referred to as “going postal” because a number of these horrific situations took place at post offices. In 1989 a former bank card employee came back into the bank and killed three staff members. The term “workplace violence” was coined after this incident. 

BETHESDA WORKER KILLS 3, HIMSELF

washingtonpost.com

It is IMPERATIVE that you provide ALL your employees (CEO to new teller hire) current, up-to-date training on workplace violence and check fraud detection and prevention. Please  don’t delay. 

 for a much calmer May for all risk, fraud and security staff. You need to smell the flowers .