The next time you make a deposit and the teller engages in chit-chat, they may actually be looking out for your financial welfare. The First National Bank South Dakota reported saving customers more than $1.1 Million by avoiding fraud losses in the first half of 2006.

Many times a customer will fall victim to a scam. There are Nigerian 419 scams, Internet sales frauds, fake lottery winnings and many more ways to steal your money. A conversation with a teller may actually reveal that a check being deposited is for more than the sales price of an item you sold over the Internet. The person who bought your car, collectible or other item requested that you send them back a cashier's check or that you wire the excess money to them. A red flag should go up because this is a common scam. The check is counterfeit, but this may not be detected until after it has traveled halfway around the world where the bank it is drawn on refuses it. Then it makes its way back to your bank, where you have to repay the bank the entire amount.

Avoiding these scams doesn't happen by accident. At First National Bank South Dakota, the Security Officer's learns what is happening across the country to banks and bank customers and trains the staff so they are aware and can help their customers.

BankingQuestions.com has a series of examples that you can compare a suspicious message to whether it is a phishing email, a Nigerian 419 scam, a potential virus carrying message or a fake lottery letter. See the examples here.