BLOG The New Word Of Mouth

Byline: Michael Bartlett

CYBERSPACE — As more people enter the “blogosphere” the potential for a new type of word-of-mouth marketing, education and, of course, the spread of disinformation, just keeps growing.

While most credit union references on random blog sites are innocuous, some are not so harmless. Take, for example, this web domain for sale that is aimed at so-called “typosquatters” who wait for credit union members to mistype their CU’s web addresses. At DNForum.com, which describes itself as “the place to talk, buy and sell domains,”one blogger posted the following message:

Domain Name: StateEmployeesCreditUnion.com, Registrar: iyd.com, Price: $7500 BIN-offers, Traffic Details: approx 50-80 daily.

Message: Yes, it’s long, but it’s generic, with type in traffic. Please keep in mind that the previous weekend was a US Holiday. This is not being sold on revenue stats alone, since it can be optimized better. I am considering offers over $5k, BIN $7500.

Bloggers Against Fraud

Of course, some bloggers are actually looking to stymie fraud. A number of bloggers posted potential fraud alerts of incidences of suspected phishing and other activities, including one on the CastleCops.com forum page about Oregon Community CU, Publix Employees CU and others, such as this entry on the Websense Security Labs site:

Security was a big topic in credit union-related blogs, such as this one posted by Ken Westin on the WatchYourEnd.com blog (a discussion page for endpoint security news and information):

This week Bob Sullivan discusses the issue of a mobile work force and the security problems in his Red Tape Chronicles. According to Sullivan 1 in 7 U.S. workers, work from home every day, mostly as an addition to the regular 9-5 in the office. The recent Veterans Administration data theft occurred due to an employee bringing their laptop home with them which just happened to have over 26 million U.S. veterans personal data on it and then their house being burglarized and the laptop and personal data being stolen. How is it that this data was allowed to leave the office without encryption? It should be a policy of any company or institution that any personal data that is taken off site for any reason should be encrypted.

I agree somewhat with Mr. Sullivan’s point that all personal data should be left at work when possible, however in many cases this is just not practical. In a recent article in ComputerWorld Pennsylvania State Employee Credit Union has taken a more progressive stance on the issue. Many of their managers are allowed to work from home. These telecommuters receive a standard-issue workstation from PSECU for home-based work, identical to what they are given in the office. In February, the credit union added Centennial Software’s DeviceWall to its PCs to prevent USB mass-storage devices or iPods from gobbling data from any PC.

At least one blogger explained how his or her credit union helps protect against check fraud. Robert Pritchett posted on the macCompanion Blog:

I have a number of cheques on hold in my credit union as the Fraud Specialist takes the time to make sure those cheques are real and not rubber or fake or counterfeit. Many of them (like, 100% so far) have been found to be bad cheques. I learned to let her have them first before they went into my account so I didn’t have to pay a processing fee after-the-fact, based on prior experiences.

Sounding Off On CU Promotion

Still others simply wanted to share their thoughts on a particular promotion, such as this posting by “x43b” on a FatWallet.com forum:

Agriculture Federal Credit Union currently has a 6.0% share certificate offer.

-Miminum is $1,000 to open account.

-You must also up a savings account with a minimum deposit of $5. I believe the minimum to avoid fees is $100.

Eligibility: The best part of this deal in my opinion is this credit union is open to anyone who pays a $20 fee to join the “Dance Society”. It is pretty hassle free, you check to become a member on your account application. This is truly a national deal.

Legitimacy: I searched “Agriculture” on the ncua.gov website and followed the link from there so I have confidence this isn’t a phishing scam.

You must open a share savings account

You cannot transfer more than $10,005.00 from a new linked funding account. I wanted to deposit $10K in the CD so this wasn’t that big of a deal for me. I put $9,980 in the CD (oh well), $20 for the Dance Club, and $5 for the savings account (I’ll deposit another $95 later in the savings account to avoid fees).

Credit Card Funding: All credit card funding of accounts are treated as cash advances, no real advantage here as you could have done a cash advance on your own and transferred later. Less attractive than it originally appeared.

Some financial institutions, seeing the potential power of the blog, have started their own entries. One credit union CEO, Chuck Bruen of First Entertainment FCU, has his own blog, where he recently commented on one credit union’s name change, saying:

I like names that being something… “Elevations” seems like a good name for a Denver based credit union.

The blogger then included an article about U of C FCU changing its name to Elevations CU, which featured the following quote from Elevations CEO Bill Sterner: “Our name no longer represented the full scope and diversity of our account holders. In addition, the U of C Federal Credit Union name creates the impression that only people associated with the University of Colorado are eligible to open an account, which is completely inaccurate.”

CU A Household Name?

There were also a variety of “household” references to credit unions, including one blogger who spoke of withdrawing money from her credit union just prior to taking off on a vacation to Disney World, and another complaining that her student loan hadn’t been funded in a very timely fashion, leaving him or her strapped for cash.

Another blog demonstrates that sometimes, even when a crediti union member appears to get the credit union difference, that member still might be vulnerable to a bank promotion. A case in point is what Erika Padilla-Morales posted on her blog:

All in all I am satisfied with how my brain has functioned today. I also bought a lot of vitamin E from Rainbow Grocery to help me soften my scars and found out that My Citibank Thank You Points can be redeemed for student loan rebate checks AND a digital camera, if I so choose.

Sure, Citibank may not be the ethical Credit Union that I also bank with, nor the ING Direct online bank that makes me see small amounts of money accumulate (if all else fails, I have about $300 in CDs (ranging from $2 - 40 dollars) that I can tap into, but it has been my consistent banking home since 2001 and I am in the process of establishing CONSISTENCY because financial institutions like that.

Yay.