If you, your family, children, or any other email you control does not have a password with at least one symbol (preferably two), large, and small capital letter, PLEASE go change it right now …….. We will wait …… Still waiting ………

THANK YOU THAT WAS NOT THAT BAD, WAS IT??

In completing this article I went to ALL of my personal, junk, duplicate, and kids emails and upped the strength of the passwords, including Google+ and others. While it took more than a minute or two, given our recent findings (to follow) ….  well worth it!

Wire Fraud Update

Casually from our personal experiences over the last year we mentioned here in a post and here in our latest newsletter that Wire Fraud is on the increase. Little did we know it is not increasing it is exploding.

Take note, here are examples of what these crooks are doing:

• Masking your home number while calling from their line on a static sounding line (to hide their voice) and asking for money (How Bold Can you Get?  Check the next one out!)
• Complete identity theft of a person, opening a bank account in their name and asking their contact to wire the money to the new “like titled” account (This is VERY scary)
• Emailing for money, and having a phone number that has a voice message that they instruct to call, later sending an email that they are in a meeting and need the money quickly
• Saying they just saw your contact at an event (church etc..) and they needed to suddenly send money to a new source

All About the Password

Ok, so you may ask how can they do this? Our lives read in print, well email these days, and with open access to your email, and history, a crook can become you with a few hours (maybe minutes) of review.

If you did not change your password in the beginning of this post, and it is not strong, please do so now…it all starts there!

Please do not take a chance, we are all in this together, and while better than the muzzle of a gun in our face (Bonnie and Clyde) the theft is still unwarranted.

We are on notice and have been for some time. Please excuse our overly cautious answers to wire question from now on….it is for our collective safety.

John Kvale CFA, CFP

PS This was not meant to develop fear or paranoia, only to inform every one of the seriousness of what we are dealing with.

Over the last several years there has been an increase in wire fraud.  Anytime money is involved and with the dependence/acceptance of internet related communications it is not surprising to see such an increase.  Think of it as a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde, but without the firearms…yaya, always glass half full!

How the scam works

Most frequently the scam begins via a hijacking of an email address. A bad guy may step in the middle of an email conversation and request money in various forms.

Prevention Techniques

To prevent this, we recommend a strong password (letters, numbers and symbols) and frequent changing of the password. Most all of you have received an email asking you to click on a link/virus from a friend or contact, this is a small hijacking but is similar to losing control of your email. Don’t let it happen to you and if it does, change your password IMMEDIATELY!

How it affects us

Current account/wire information on file does not change and will be unaffected.  New wire requests are where the action lies.

If there is a request to send funds to a non-similar titled account, expect our back office to not only call the receiving party, but in certain cases we may need to conference call with our wire department for audible verification. Yes an inconvenience, but a minor one given the alternatives.

If possible, giving a little extra time for money transfers is advised, but we understand there are times when this is not possible.

Have a Great Monday!

John Kvale CFA, CFP