By Marlee Ribnick
To help prevent fraud, Kish Bank, located in central in Pennsylvania, told its customers to “stop and think.” It worked.
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Come the fourth quarter of 2023, Kish Bank began to focus on fraud more broadly — making an effort to inform the market, and community, as a whole. To round out its arsenal of resources, it looked at ABA’s Banks Never Ask That campaign, and ABA Foundation’s Safe Banking for Seniors campaign among others.
With the help of those resources, Kish Bank became a fraud-fighting machine.
The bank made good use of the ready-made social media posts available through the Banks Never Ask That campaign’s communications toolkit. Throughout October 2023, it shared those important scam-spotting tips on its social media channels.
In November of that year, the bank tapped into free programming and resources available through Safe Banking for Seniors and held an educational session for local seniors, with a focus on combating senior fraud. The presentation received positive feedback, leading to a subsequent presentation for a different senior population.
The bank then hosted Fraud Awareness Week from December 11-15, 2023. Social media posts continued in addition to other communication efforts, including talking points for bankers to reference when talking to customers. The overarching message was “Stop and Think.” Bankers distributed magnets, keychains and fliers adorned with a red stop sign to remind their customers and community members to do just that.
Each day of Fraud Awareness Week had a different theme — Monday was identity theft; Tuesday, imposter scams; Wednesday, romance scams; Thursday, cybersecurity tips; and Friday focused on digital scams. Banks Never Ask That resources helped the bank inform talking points and social media posts that tied into each day’s theme.
The upshot: increases in averted fraud amounts. From the fourth quarter of 2023 to the first quarter of 2024, following the successful conclusion of its increased fraud awareness efforts supported by the #BanksNeverAskThat campaign, Kish Bank experienced a 94% decline in customer losses to fraud.
“We saw less fraud loss and fraud attempts throughout the first half of 2024,” says Greg Hayes, president and CEO of Kish Bank. “We also noticed that customers became more attentive to red flags and were asking the right questions. They were reporting issues to us before those issues had the chance to escalate.”
To other bankers curious about ramping up their fraud prevention strategies, Kish Bank recommends making it all part of a larger, strategic program. “Independently, Banks Never Ask That and Safe Banking for Seniors carry weight, but together, they’re a lot stronger,” says Hayes.
After a hiatus in 2024, Kish Bank intends to reinstate this initiative in 2025 and maintain it annually. The team also hopes to partner with other local banks in the future.
Marlee Ribnick is a senior writer at the ABA Banking Journal.
