The best ways to protect yourself against fraud

John Woods, Vice Chair & CFO of Citizens Financial Group, joins TheStreet to explain how you can best protect yourself against fraud.

Transcript

00:00We've seen a lot of bank fraud, credit card fraud, identity theft.

00:08Can you talk to me about where the industry, how can the industry do a better job

00:13at protecting banking consumers and their data?

00:18Yeah, I think it's a huge issue and we need to, customers need to trust that their financial

00:24institutions are going to protect their data and that's a huge investment that we're making.

00:28We've been investing in our fraud capabilities for a number of years and we feel like we have

00:34a very effective capability in preventing fraud. One of the ways that we do that is through alerts

00:39where we reach out and one of the most effective ways is to say, hey, was this you?

00:46And if it's not, then we're able to quickly be able to prevent a transaction from occurring

00:51and that's always the best way to handle it. But if a transaction fraudulently gets through,

00:56then because we're such a large financial institution, we have the resources to make

01:00you whole and to ensure that you're not going to be out when it was an issue that maybe we

01:06could have prevented but didn't, we're able to make sure that this doesn't end up being

01:11a financial loss for you. And you can do that with a large institution that you trust like Citizens.

01:16So as someone in the industry, when your family members come to you and say,

01:20what should I do to protect myself, what do you tell them?

01:24It's really to be careful with your own data and ensure that you're not sharing your data

01:30in an inappropriate fashion. And the things like phishing attacks that you see on emails,

01:36don't ever give out your personal information. When someone reaches out to you, if you get a

01:41phone call and they say, hey, is this you? Is this John Woods? And I'll say, hold on a second,

01:46who are you? Well, I'm your bank. Can you give me your information? You never do that. And Citizens

01:53will never ask for your information by reaching out to you. And so the advice is never give out

01:58your personal information. Bank with a large, reputable financial institution who will be there

02:03for you when the rare mistake comes through. And you can trust that your data will be protected.

02:12And in the unlikely event that something untoward happens, we'll be there to compensate you.