Central Bank of Boone County freezes cards after fraud alert

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Central Bank of Boone County posted an alert on Facebook on Monday warning their customers of fraudulent activity on some cards.

The bank turned off debit and credit cards of those who were either affected by a fraudster, or were at high risk.

Mary Wilkerson, the senior vice president of marketing at the bank, offered an explanation of how scammers get credit card numbers.

"There are algorithms people use," Wilkerson said. "These programs randomly generate number combinations and essentially phish for a card with matching numbers."

The bank has programs that Wilkerson didn't touch too heavily on, but are used to monitor people's banking activity to look for anything suspicious.

"People actually in a weird way have patterns and behaviors that they fall into," Wilkerson said. "Much of the time, our programs look for activity that is not normal. This could be a sign of fraudulant activity."

According to Wilkerson, much of the time card numbers are acquired by people accidently giving them out, or not using a secured site when putting in information.

She also recommended signing up for notifications in mobile banking applications that will alert you to purchases made on a card.

Fewer than 10% of customers cards were shut down, but it still had a serious impact.

"Our phone lines were so backed up, we couldn't talk with people," Wilkerson said. "We had to move resources around to answer calls."

Many cards have been reactivated, but Wilkerson did stress that it is smart to get a new card if there is any suspicious activity.

If there are any funds that have been lost or stolen, Central Bank of Boone County will accept an application within 60 days for a refund.