Consumer Fraud: Trends, Cases, and Tips

DRC Sponsor: Jim Morrow

The term "consumer fraud" describes any instance consumer in which an individual suffers a financial or personal loss because of unfair, deceptive, false, illegitimate or misleading business practices. It extends to the defrauding of a consumer of various products and services which do not perform as advertised. There is an underlying perception that the Decorah community is relatively immune from consumer fraud but that perception is erroneous. In fact, our local Decorah Bank & Trust (DB&T) has one staff member who is essentially dedicated full-time to handling one specific type, that being debit card fraud. Dallas Steffen is a Decorah native and presently serves as DB&T's Customer Support Manager. His talk will cover local experiences with consumer fraud and trends being observed in fraud prevalence and type. He will also share tips on consumer best practices and ways to avoid becoming a victim of consumer fraud.