|
FinCrime Network Now Free for WBA Members
FinCrime is an online network that allows your bank to learn about financial crimes happening in your community. FinCrime helps financial institutions detect and prevent fraud losses and assists law enforcement in the prosecution of criminals.
How FinCrime works is that members submit case information on the FinCrime web site about a crime they’ve experienced at their bank. That information will be broadcast to other FinCrime members in hopes of stopping the criminal from defrauding other financial institutions.
In addition to alerting others about crimes against financial institutions, members will also receive alerts on crimes such as check fraud or counterfeit schemes in their area of the state that could affect their bank. Members can also search existing fraud cases to see if anything matches a situation that is affecting them in their community.
How It Works
Effective Jan. 1, Wisconsin banks can log on to www.fincrime.com and register one or more employees as users of the system. Registration is easy and takes only minutes. Here’s how the system works:
- Banks can opt to register an employee at each branch or just one or two key contacts. (Some users can be “read-only,” without the ability to post alerts.) Banks should also urge law enforcement officials in each town where they do business to register as well.
- Upon registration, users establish a personal profile and select criteria for alerts – for example, geographic area or type of fraud. After users are verified and approved by WBA, they will receive alerts via e-mail each time an incident matching those criteria occurs.
- If an incident occurs at a bank, one of the bank’s registered users may log on to the password-protected web site and enter as much information about the crime as possible – a process which takes about 10 minutes.
- The system automatically compares the incident with others in the database. If a potentially related case is found, the persons posting both the original and the new incident are notified.
- Bankers and police officers can also search existing cases in the database at any time, based upon criteria such as names, dates, geographic area and type of fraud. FinCrime also allows users to post digital images of suspects and scans of forged or phony checks, which is especially helpful to frontline staff.
Success Stories
FinCrime has been helping banks avoid fraud since 2002. Often, success stories span state lines. In one case, a shortchange artist defrauded a bank in Grinnell, Iowa, of $1,500. Local police quickly filed a report on FinCrime and an alert went out. A holding company in Omaha, Neb., passed along the alert to its banks. When the man tried the same scam just one day later in Sterling, Colo., a teller recognized him from the FinCrime description. He was arrested and brought back to Iowa.
In other cases in Omaha and Fargo, N.D., police searched FinCrime after they arrested suspects. As a result, they were able to charge the suspects with additional, related crimes.
|
products & services 
