In the intractable fight against America’s online scam epidemic, there is one unlikely place where efforts to fight back appear to be making an impact.
From her office in Dubuque, Iowa, Jill Gogel has been doing everything she can to combat the scammers plaguing her customers. Fraud has become, in her words, “an everyday occurrence,” and last year, the FTC reported that victims nationwide lost $10 billion to scams.
As vice president of fraud services at the Dupaco Community Credit Union, handling nearly 170,000 accounts in Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin, Gogel has seen how fraud affects her customers firsthand.
“We’re all victims of fraud at some point,” she says. “How we handle it can be a difference as well. And where you have your support.”
For Gogel, that support meant a more aggressive, personal and proactive approach to protecting her customers.
“I think sometimes we need to just remember that maybe taking two extra minutes for one person can be …