RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. – CO-OP Financial Services is launching a new “Fraud Buzz” monthly webinar series to provide credit unions with a collaborative forum to discuss fraud and risk from the credit union point of view.
The series is being hosted by industry expert John Buzzard, who joined CO-OP on July 25. The first Fraud Buzz webinar is taking place Thursday, Sept. 15 at 2 p.m. ET. Registration for the event is available at http://co-opfs.org/fraudbuzzwebinar
“As fraudsters get smarter and faster, so must our fraud prevention and detection capabilities, and this webinar series is part of our overall strategy to ensure credit unions stay at the forefront of new developments in this area,” said Todd Clark, president/CEO, CO-OP Financial Services, in a statement. “Helping our clients defend themselves and their members from this criminal activity is not only part of our responsibility to them, it is our passion. Safe, secure payments is the core of our economic system.”
According to CO-OP, in the series Buzzard and a guest expert will discuss, dissect and predict how fraud current events will affect the credit union community. For more than 15 years, Buzzard has been an influential thought leader on card fraud, risk and security services for financial institutions and law enforcement agencies throughout the United States. He joins CO-OP as a strategic technical fraud account executive, following work with Fidelity Information Services and FICO (Fair Isaac Corporation).
CO-OP reported that in addition to hosting the webinar series, Buzzard will be advising credit unions under a new Twitter handle called @COOPFraudBuzz, in which he will manage and tweet out relevant information related to fraud.
The Sept. 15 session’s guest expert will be Chris Forsythe, senior risk management analyst, VISA, a fraud investigator and IT specialist. Forsythe has devoted his career to helping the card industry combat fraud through collaboration and analytics.
CO-OP said Buzzard and Forsythe will explore activities related to “Carders” (people who buy, sell and trade online stolen credit card data) and the “Dark Web,” where numerous carding forums reside. Subsequent webinars hosted by Buzzard are planned for the third Thursday of each month.
Key takeaways for attendees of the September 15 debut – and for the series overall – include:
- Learning new best practices.
- Keeping informed on the latest fraud and risk scenarios as they happen.
- Collaborating on a meaningful level with other like-minded credit unions.
- Separating facts from fiction within the fraud landscape.