At North Ridge Country Club in Raleigh, the buffet line moved slowly — not because of the food, but because of the conversation. Around the room, business owners, community partners, and Southern Bank team members caught up over plates of barbecue and sweet tea, chatting like old friends before the formal discussion even began.
That’s exactly what the Southern Bank Fraud Prevention Symposium was designed to be — not a lecture on cybersecurity, but a discussion about people, trust, and partnership. Hosted for Southern’s business clients, the event brought together companies from across eastern North Carolina to talk about real-world fraud prevention.
Human Connection Over Policy
Special Investigator Heather Stroud from the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation set the tone early: Fraud isn’t new, but its forms are constantly evolving. “We live in a society today that now we have to verify, to trust,” she told the crowd.
It was a message that resonated across tables, a reminder that even the most advanced tools rely on something simple: effective communication.
Throughout the room, Southern bankers nodded along, swapping quick stories about calls they’d fielded or customers they’d helped identify suspicious transactions. Fraud prevention, everyone agreed, starts with awareness and with a willingness to pause before reacting.
“Nothing is urgent enough that you can’t stop and verify,” Stroud added. It was a quiet moment, but one that seemed to land with everyone listening.
When Banking Feels Local Again
Sheila Ewers, Southern’s VP, Fraud Analyst III – Risk Management, brought the conversation closer to home. “Emails are intercepted and altered — the invoices look just like the regular ones you’ve seen for years,” she explained.
In some cases, emails are rerouted to bypass the intended recipient, or the sender’s address is adjusted just enough to go unnoticed. These messages typically contain documents or instructions requesting changes to normal payment processes or banking details.
Her point was clear: No one is immune. Even familiar vendors or recurring payments can be manipulated by fraudsters, especially when communication happens online. “You are the best person to identify fraud or an irregular item in your account,” Ewers said. “If fraud occurs, the bank often takes the hit — but clients have to do their part, too.”
That idea, partnership over passivity, reflected the culture Southern aims to build with its business clients. Prevention isn’t a one-sided effort; it’s a shared commitment.
Ewers reminded attendees that speed matters when something looks wrong: “Don’t rush to send money, even when you know you owe it. Stop and verify first.” She added that the consequences of waiting too long can be costly, explaining how one business customer fell for an email compromise scam after they received instructions to update a payment method change and banking information for an ACH payment. The customer sent nearly a million dollars to someone they believed was their vendor.
“Trusting without verifying puts them at risk for loss,” Ewers noted. “Although we were ultimately able to recover the funds for our customer, that is not always the case. Typically, funds received are very quickly withdrawn by the fraudster.”
She ended her remarks with a plea that summed up the room’s takeaway: “Please, please set up [a fraud prevention] process … because there is no guarantee your bank will be able to recover those funds for you.” One example of a recommended practice is an internal control that requires verbal confirmation for any electronically submitted request to change contact details, payment methods, or banking information.
The Tools That Back Up the Talk
When Lauren Schlafer, assistant vice president and treasury services specialist, took the floor, she shifted the conversation from caution to action.
“Positive Pay lets you see mismatched checks before they ever hit your account,” Schlafer explained. The service helps businesses confirm check details — number, date, amount, and payee — before funds are released.
She also walked attendees through ACH Positive Pay. While Positive Pay helps safeguard paper checks, ACH Positive Pay extends that same protection to electronic drafts. “ACH Positive Pay helps protect against electronic drafts — you’re alerted before anything posts,” she said.
Both tools, Schlafer emphasized, are designed to be practical for busy professionals: “We make these tools easy to use because we know our clients are busy — and fraud isn’t slowing down.”
Then, with a note of candor that drew a few knowing laughs from the audience, she added: “I see check fraud literally on a weekly basis.”
A Moment That Captured the Day
As plates were cleared and the last questions trickled in, Stroud offered one final piece of advice that seemed to linger even as people packed up: “Positive Pay is that level of protection your company needs.”
It wasn’t a sales pitch; it was a reflection of the day’s biggest theme: Partnership matters most.
At Southern Bank, fraud prevention isn’t a policy tucked into a brochure or a feature hidden in an app. It’s a shared effort built around conversation, the kind that starts at the table, between people who know each other by name.
“People protect people,” Stroud said. “That’s the end result — we have to protect each other.”
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