Experts share how to evade fraud

The room was packed Tuesday as Union County residents of all ages learned how to protect themselves from fraud and scams. The theme of the night? “Keep an eye out for fraud, and trust your local banker.”

The seminar, located at Southwestern Community College, was hosted by four Creston banks and featured a variety of experts, from Iowa Bankers Association Vice President of Marketing and Industry Relations Jenica Lensmeyer to local law enforcement.

“The fraudsters are becoming even more sophisticated, so everyone needs to be on the alert. They will target you based on your age, your lifestyle, things that are going on,” Lensmeyer said. “Everyone needs to be aware of what’s happening. Knowing that these things are out there and being on alert is the best way to prevent financial fraud from happening in the first place.”

Fraud trends

The Federal Trade Commission estimates the overall loss to fraud in 2024 to be close to $200 billion, stemming from a number of trending scams. Lensmeyer explained each of these trends and gave ways to combat them.

Phishing: One of the top scams is through phishing, which involves receiving an email that appears to be from a trusted sources, such as a boss, the bank, an internet provider. The email will likely provide a link to click. Clicking the link often downloads malware to the device in order to steal personal information. Once the scammer has this information, they can open new accounts under the victim or drain the victim’s existing accounts.

Lensmeyer said the best way to avoid becoming a victim to this scam is to pay attention to the link provided.

“I always say if there’s a link in the email, go to the link directly without clicking the link through the email to verify that it’s correct. Really look at the link that they’re wanting you to go to,” Lensmeyer said. Typing the link into a browser rather than clicking on the provided link will stop any malware from being downloaded.

It is also suggested to look at the email address being sent. While the name attached to the email may say one thing, the address itself will likely not be an official business email.

Impersonation/distress: Gaining popularity in recent years, impersonation phone calls prey on emotions by pretending to be a loved one in distress. Common scenarios include needing money for bail or requesting sensitive information.

While people would like to think they would know if the voice of a loved one doesn’t sound right, scammers are using artificial intelligence to create almost perfect imitations of a person’s voice.

“Anything that you put online, any interview that you’ve done, a video at your grandchild’s birthday party that has just a little bit of someone’s voice, they can take and easily make into sounding like it’s you,” Lensmeyer said. “We at our office spent $0 and three minutes impersonating our CEO’s daughter’s voice. It’s so easy to do.”

Lensmeyer suggested two ways to combat this scam: calling back one’s loved one and using a family code word.

“Hang up and verify. If it truly is your grandchild, you hanging up and calling them right back isn’t going to do any damage. It’s just making sure that they indeed do really need you,” Lensmeyer said. “[Try] creating a secret word or a code word with your family members so that they can easily verify that it is indeed you that they’re talking with. So if they get a call that says, ‘Hey grandma, I’ve been in an accident. I need you to send $2,000 or I have to go to jail.’ Grandma can say, ‘What’s the code word?’ And they’re not going to know what the word is.”

Fake prizes/sweepstakes: Winning something won’t require additional money or personal information. Scammers will often tease their victim with a hefty prize, but beware of the strings attached.

“‘You won the lottery, but we need your social security number to give you the money,’ or ‘we need your bank account information,’ or ‘you send us $10 first and then we’ll send you $1,000.’ And it goes up from there,” Lensmeyer said. “These are things to pay attention to. I think general rule of thumb, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. As much as we would all want to believe that we won the lottery, chances are you probably didn’t.”

Other common scams include romance, investment, government imposter, job-offer scams and toll-related scams.

While Lensmeyer said it can feel embarrassing to be the victim of any of these scams, it’s important to speak out.

“These things happen to people all the time, but sharing your story, sharing what you learn, can help,” Lensmeyer. “They’re good at tailoring the type of fraud to the individual, so be alert. If something’s happened to you, it’s probably also happening to others in your community. So share the information that you have and then watch for fraud, raise awareness, reduce the stigma of victimization.”

Q&A panel

Following Lensmeyer’s presentation, a panel of six local experts answered questions from the audience. The panel included Jessica Travis of First Interstate Bank, Adam Snodgrass of Iowa State Savings Bank, Sara Harvey of Northwest Bank, Paul Fuller of PCSB Bank, Creston Police Officer Cory Dorsey and Union County Sheriff Brian Bolton.

Topics included recent local scams and the likelihood of catching a perpetrator.

“I appreciate everybody being here and just educating yourself,” Bolton said. “We’re seeing fraud and scams all the time, and they’re always coming up with new ways to get at people.”

Harvey said that’s she’s seen an increase in romance scams since the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Unfortunately, COVID didn’t help us at all because of how many people were isolated,” Harvey said. “They might have returned to online for that companionship, and they might still have that companionship. They still might be talking to those people, and now they’re asking for money.”

In 2026, Bolton said there have been two fake websites for a business supposedly existing in Union County.

“It was a fake business. There was a guy in North Carolina that wired $40,000 to buy a motor home that was supposedly in Union County,” Bolton said. “That business did not exist. There was several other people that got taken from another business, and we’re talking large sums of money to buy pieces of equipment, things like that.”

Travis said that sometimes the scammer will offer money first, making the victim more willing to send money later.

“They deposit it to your account to make you a little less on guard because they’re not asking you for money, right? They’re giving you money, but then they want you to send some of it on to someone else,” Travis said. “We had one this week where a gentleman’s ‘uncle’ had helped him with his tax return. He was getting $112,000 back that would be in this week, and then he was going to move the money from there. Again, if it sounds too good to be true, it is.”

With the popularity of paying bills digitally and online shopping, panelists also addressed how to know if a website is secure.

“I’m not sure there’s a good way to tell if it’s a real website or not. You can tell whether it’s encrypted through the ‘s’ being https,” Fuller said. An encrypted website protects data as it travels from a user’s browser to the server.

Snodgrass said to beware of Facebook purchases too.

“Facebook is a very common source of fraudulent purchases or fraudulent transactions that we encounter. This happens a lot,” Snodgrass said.

“I think if you find your dream car online, before you send money, you got to go see it,” Harvey added. “You have to go see, make sure there’s a car there.”

While these scams are popular, getting a conviction is less common.

“The vast majority lead to overseas call centers, things like that, but we are seeing a lot more that are based in the United States,” Dorsey said. “The more that we investigate these things, the more contacts with the FBI and those agencies, the more connections we make with them. It’s extremely hard to actually track down who the actual fraudster is.”

However, victims are still encouraged to report to law enforcement when something happens.

“Contact the law center. They’ll figure out if it’s a city, a police department call or a sheriff’s office call,” Dorsey said. “And then if it’s something that we’re capable of investigating, we’ll do as much as we can, but we do reach out to the federal agencies a lot just because usually it’s a national scam. Usually there’s already agencies investigating those people.”

And when in doubt, people should always check with the experts.

“If something seems off, always just pick up the phone and call your local bank,” Lensmeyer said.