Message From The President: Our History & Future

One of the more interesting historical facts about CNB involves the Dillinger Gang.  On August 14^th, 1933, John Dillinger and his Gang stole $6,000 from our Bluffton CNB branch.  Dillinger was eventually captured and brought back to Lima, where his Gang successfully broke him out of jail with a hail of gunfire.  While interesting, I think we can all agree that less crime is best.

Unfortunately, the criminals won’t stop.  They have changed their tactics from branch robberies to various forms of fraud.  Criminals have become very sophisticated in their attempts to defraud banks and their customers.  Over the past 2 years, banks all over the Country have experienced an increase in fraud.  We have seen large increases in check fraud, wire fraud, email schemes, elder abuse schemes, and romance fraud. 

During this time, we have been laser-focused on fraud and have tools in place to help customers.  We post information on our Social Media outlets, on CNBOhio.com, and have information in our offices to help educate our employees and customers. Internally, we added a new section to our Employee Newsletter called “Keep An Eye on Fraud,” where we share bank-wide fraud cases in an effort to bring awareness to the situations we handle.  We hold weekly meetings and provide ongoing training to staff as the complexity and number of fraud cases continue to grow.  We want our staff to be as prepared as possible to help customers.

For customers, we post #NoFraudFriday on our social media outlets, providing information on recent scams and how to help prevent becoming a victim of fraud.  Our branches have literature on Gift Card Scams, Phone Scams, Romance Scams, and Small Business Scams, free to everyone.  We speak to business and retail customers about the importance of using the tools we offer to help prevent fraud.  These tools include Check Positive Pay, account alerts, and how to properly use the Cards section of our mobile app to manage their debit and credit cards. 

Finally, on October 2, we held a seminar focusing on Elder Abuse Awareness.  Speakers at the event included representatives from Adult Protective Services and Citizens National Bank.  Want to learn more about how to protect yourself, your loved ones, and your business from becoming a victim?  Reach out to your CNB representative today.  We are here to help!