In my prior post, I shared the news that a fraud team I co-created was reaching its 10 year anniversary next month.

Joan.of.the.Arch asked me to blog about some of the bad guys the team has caught.

It has been an interesting journey. When we first started the group, none of the associated agencies would talk to each other until a crime was committed and then, discussion was very 'protected'. We were leary of talking to each other.

A bad guy could actually hit every bank in town with the same type of crime and we would all independently lick our wounds.

NOW- a bad guy hits one bank and all of the agencies are aware of it within minutes....and there have been numerous occasions when the bad guy goes to the second bank and is apprehended because they are watching out for him. (Passing stolen checks is one example)

My favorite nabs have been caregivers who start to drain a senior citizens accounts...now when we are suspect of this activity, senior services and the police are very quick to act...AND we are able to tell if they are using more than one bank to commit the crime.

We are always careful of privacy laws.

Because the agencies work so close together, everyone is much better aware and trained on processes-- which speeds up the time it takes to catch the crime in action, take action against it and start the prosecution process.

Collectively, all of our communities bank staff are better trained on fraud because examples are discussed and shared at the monthly meetings on the hows, whys, wheres, etc.

We once had a hispanic gang coming to our community from Los Angeles...they would all enter the bank on Friday afternoon to cash their "paychecks' (stolen, of course)..and often the dollar amount of the hit would be 10-20K. But the word spread throughout the community, the banks and the police put a plan together...and the next time they came to town, the bad guys were arrested with no loss.

There are many, many stories like this. I wish I could say financial crime is decreasing, but because of the economic enviornment, it is increasing...we are just better informed and prepared when it happens.