Protecting Your Money

There are lots of people out there making a living off of tricking an honest consumer out of their money. Yet there are simple tips and precautions that can protect you. After all criminals look for the easy scam, if they were into hard work they would probably have real jobs!

 

Tip #1

Do not leave your wallet or purse in plain sight in an unattended vehicle. It takes less than a minute for a passing thief to break your window and snatch anything they want. 

 

Tip#2

Never write your PIN on your debit or credit cards or have them written down close to where you keep your cards. 

 

Tip #3

Buying products or services on-line must be done with care. Using reputable sites that have been around awhile is always encouraged. Sometimes when you authorize them to charge your card you are unknowingly signing up for a service as well. They might charge your card every month for a monthly e-newsletter or some other nonsense.

 

Tip #4

This is more a fact than a tip. Lately there has been an e-mail rumor going around saying if you are held up at the ATM and you put in your pin backwards the ATM will signal the police. THIS IS NOT TRUE! In fact most debit and credit cards have the option where the user can pick their own pin number. In that case if you pick 5555 as your pin there is no way the ATM could decipher what is forwards and what is backwards. 

Thanks to Sherol Rumbagh for sharing these tips!  

I Won the Lottery!

That’s right; I really did win the lottery.  Well, at least that’s what an email told me.  Even though I’ve never lived in, or visited England, somehow I won their lottery.  I couldn’t believe my luck while reading this.  It seemed so weird that I had won because just that week a customer came in with a check saying she won the lottery in Nigeria.  Two big winners in one week!  All I had to do to collect my winning check was send back an email with my current contact information.  There was also a form where I had to fill in my lottery ticket number and the amount I won.  Strange that they were informing me I won, yet they didn’t have my ticket number, but I chalked it up to a misunderstanding. So I filled in the winning ticket numbers I would have played.  Deciding the amount I won, well that was difficult.  I didn’t want to appear too greedy so I put down a meager five billion dollars.  I figure that’s the difference between having a plain quarter pounder and having one with cheese for the rest of my life. The English lotto officials were so accommodating.  All I had to do in order to get my winnings was give them my bank account number and they took out several thousand dollars for ticket and handling fees.  After doing this, I was told it would only take a few weeks for them to send me my big winnings.  It’s only been a few months since they emptied out my account, so I know I should be receiving the money any day now.  I wonder what I’ll buy first after I pay off all of the recent debt I’ve incurred.

NO, I did not send them any money or give out my bank account number! Hopefully after reading this, most of you have realized what a joke lottery scams are.  I guarantee it’s a scam any time you receive an email saying you’ve won a foreign lottery.  Why on earth would someone send money to a lottery office in order to get money sent back to them?  Yet it happens all the time. Even if by some one in a trillion chance it was real, too bad!  It’s illegal in the U.S. to play any foreign lottery.   So please don’t get fooled by these emails and watch out for your elders so they don’t fall for these tricks via direct mail or phone and end up losing everything.  To learn more about foreign lottery scams, talk with your local police department, talk with a bank official, or check out http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/intlalrt.shtm.

123 Years and Going Strong!

Central National Bank is celebrating its 123rd birthday this month – yes, that’s correct: 123 YEARS.  When this bank was founded, the car hadn’t even been invented yet!  Times have certainly changed since 1884, but Central National Bank has stood the test of time as a strong, successful bank throughout its storied history. 

The bank was founded by Sumner Pierce in October of 1884 in Junction City.  Originally chartered as a state bank, “Central Kansas Bank” was elevated to a more prestigious national bank just six years later in 1890.   

Central National Bank’s long history of strength and consistency is rare in the banking industry today.  In an era where bank acquisitions and name changes are commonplace, Central National Bank has kept the same name for more than a century!  Central National Bank is a family and employee-owned business, and our team of bankers across Kansas and Nebraska take pride in building their communities by providing excellent financial services and by donating their time and energy to community projects.

Happy 123rd birthday, Central National Bank!  Now we just need to get enough people together to blow out all of these candles…

–Sara Munson

Green Machine

On September 19^th Central National Bank hosted its 5^th Advisory Board Roundtable Forum.  The topic was “Going Green”.  Guest presenters were Sarah Hill-Nelson, secretary/treasurer of Bowersock Mill & Power Co. in Lawrence and a representative of The Bonneville Environmental Foundation out of Portland, Oregon as well as the director of Zephyr Energy of Lawrence and Scott Zaremba, president of Zarco Earth-Friendly-Fuels and Zarco 66 stores of Lawrence. 

Bowersock operates a Hydroelectric-power plant along the Kansas River in Lawrence and has been providing energy for Lawrence since the early 1900’s.  The Hill family has been involved in the plant for much of its rich history.  The Bonneville Environmental Foundation is focused on the reparation of damaged watersheds across the country and establishing new renewable energy generation.  Zephyr Energy is the local vehicle for buying green tags to offset you or your businesses energy usage and to support the use of renewable energy generation.

The Zaremba family has been in the fuel business in Lawrence for the past 40 years.  Scott Zaremba is in the process of opening the first retail Bio-fuels station in the state of Kansas at 9^th & Iowa Street in Lawrence.  The station will be open later this fall and Scott informed us that many cars are already compatible to run on E-85 grade fuel.  A list of vehicles that are equipped for this use can be founds on the Zarco 66 web site (www.zarco66.com).

Central National Bank of Lawrence is proud to announce that a three-year commitment to invest in green tags to offset 25% of the energy usage in its six Lawrence bank branch locations.  CNB is the first and only bank in Lawrence to make this commitment and we do this consistent with the mission of our bank, which is focused on “…making our customers and the communities we serve successful.”  An investment in renewable energy is an important investment in the future of Lawrence and the state of Kansas. 

Additionally, CNB is proud to be the financing source for Zarco Earth-Friendly-Fuels and their new Biofuel station in Lawrence.  The leadership and commitment by the Zaremba family in taking such an important step to begin to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and to make a positive impact on the environment is truly a landmark step in Kansas.

As Scott Zaremba stated in his presentation, “to create change one must take action.”  Central National Bank is very pleased to play a small role in supporting these great community leaders and helping promote issues that truly do make our community and customers successful.

 

Blog by Brad Chindamo