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** Who's Using Your Name Fraudulently?

I recently uncovered a financial Web site with some disturbing features. 

It started when I entered a credit union name in the Google search engine. The second listing on the return was for a different web site (www.debtloansx.net/f8585f.htm). However, its Description text had been lifted right off the credit union's Web site. 

Curious, I clicked the link to see what this site was. The resulting page said "Welcome to CashBack Values.com" and the dot-com name was a hyperlink. That was it. No mention of my credit union at all.

I clicked on the View Source link, and saw all the hidden code on the "Welcome to CashBack Values.com" page. Hidden in the Source code were the names of MANY credit unions and text from their pages. 

I did the Google search for some of my other clients, and the CashBack Values link appeared for another of my customers. The link, however, was to a different page (www.debtloansx.net/f2516f.htm). Evidently these guys have several pages on the debtloansx.net site (there is no home page for this site, by the way), and they all contain credit union names and site text in the Source code.

As far as I can tell, CashBack Values is hoping to confuse credit union members into believing they are associated with the credit union somehow. 

Suppose your member finds this site through a search engine and believes it is program endorsed by your credit union. Would that member be willing to apply for a loan from these people -- or worse -- share personal data based on your "affiliation"?

According to the Whois registration database, cashbackvalues.com is registered to Key Administrative Service Corp in Vancouver, British Columbia. Please note that this information may not be accurate; there's no penalty for giving inaccurate data about yourself when you register a domain name. Since this address is outside the United States, the laws that apply to this site are unclear. Also note that this site was established in December 2001 (we'll get to that later).

The site has a high traffic rank (21,508) on the Alexa ranking site, so it's something to be concerned about. The Better Business Bureau has two companies named Cashback Values on record. The first Cash Back Values Corp. was founded in 1999 and provides loans, but has no valid business license. 

The second Cashback Values is also located in Nevada, but the president, business phone number, and founding date are all unknown. This particular company is classified as an "Internet-Informational Websites" business, and has 13 complaints on record since its file was opened -- in April 2002. (Do you suppose there's any relation to the cashbackvalues.com domain which was set up four months earlier?)

What can you do to protect your members?

If your web site is affected, we could send a "cease and desist" warning to both the Nevada and Canada addresses. It would probably be a good idea to report both the debloansx.net and cashbackvalues.com sites to the Better Business Bureau. You may also want to put a notice on your Web site warning members about this site.

More important, submit the paperwork to get the BBB seal of approval on your web site. Then make it clear to your members: If you don't see the seal, don't do business with this site.

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** Sorting Member Emails from Spam

If it seems like more spam ads are flooding your email InBox these days, you're not alone. Some large businesses claim that spam now makes up 35% of the traffic on their email servers, and the number continues to grow.

There are many spam filters on the market today, but none have managed to avoid the problem of "false positives," where they accidentally delete valid business emails along with the spam.

Most of us can't identify spam either. Is that "Need your help!" email from a member who's lost his password, or is it someone hawking adult photos? It would be easier if members used words like "CU Member Request" in the Subject field. Mass spam mailings generally don't use terms specific to our industry. Unfortunately, you can't control what members enter in the Subject field - or can you?

It's pretty safe to assume that most of your member emails are initiated from your Web site. When a member clicks your email link, you control what address appears in the resulting "To" field. You can set the contents of the Subject field as well.

Now when you see a strange email address with "CU Member Request" in the Subject field, you know it came from your Web site and deserves a quick response. You can even use this method to track how many member requests are being generated from your Web site.

For extra control, you could set up different Subject topics on different pages. On your Password Support page the email link could read "CU Member Password Request". On the Loans page the email link would say "CU Member Loan Question", and so on. This allows you to separate urgent requests from more routine questions.

If you wish, you can enter default information in every email field. You can include cc: addresses, and even enter opening statements in the body of an email message. ("Please re-send my password.")

To set up Subject lines on the email links in your Web site, contact your webmaster today. It's quick and simple, and you stand to benefit from the change.

As for the spam, my advice is this: delete 'em. Don't even open the emails, just delete them as soon as they arrive and move on. If all spam mailers receive zero response to their mailings, maybe they'll get the point and leave us alone someday. 

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** Making Your Site Accessible

This spring I had the opportunity to work with "the Amazing Jeffo", an incredible magician who also happens to be blind. I remember one phone conversation with Jeff in which I became distracted by a strange voice in the background. "That's my web reader," Jeff explained. "It reads web pages out load when I'm surfing the internet."

It turned out that the Amazing Jeffo, although blind, was an avid web surfer who had even designed his own Web site. He's not alone.

Imagine for a moment, that you are disabled and every trip that exceeds a few blocks in length - be it a quick shopping trip or a visit to the credit union - must be scheduled at least a day in advance with Metro Mobility. Now you have the internet, and you can do all your shopping and banking online. It can be an enormously liberating experience -- as long as these Web sites are accessible to people with disabilities.

It's a good bet that your Web site isn't accessible. I recently reviewed a list of web design criteria for disability access, and most online banking vendors don't address these needs. I'm not pointing fingers, though. When I design web sites, disability access is NOT on my list of priorities either.

I'd like to see that change. Inspired by the Amazing Jeffo, I've learned a lot about what we need to do to make your site more accessible to the disabled. Many of the changes are simple and offer benefits to other visitors as well.

Expect to see a flurry of new technologies arrive on the market in time for the Christmas shopping season. Many companies have announced new products that make it easier to surf the web via cell phones and PDAs. If you're wondering how anyone could view your Web site on your PalmPilot screen, the answer is that they're taking their cue from the disabled. Like the Amazing Jeffo's web reader, these new handheld devices use web browsers designed to ignore graphics and display only text information. These "text-based" web browsers will grow in popularity if portable web surfing takes off. 

Describe your Images

Neither the text-based web browser nor the Amazing Jeffo's web reader can see your graphics. Instead, they read the ALT (or TITLE) tag, a description you must embed manually with each image. 

Your blind readers won't care if there's a picture of a car on the Web page showing auto rates. However, if that image links to another page then it should have a TITLE tag reading, "Click here to learn more about our upcoming car sale!" In general, any graphic that links to another page should have an TITLE tag associated with it. 

Offer Text-Based Menus

Site navigation is another problem for text-only web surfers. Many Web sites use hidden menus that pop up when you scroll over them. It's tough to scroll if you're blind, and even more difficult to view those menus on a tiny screen. 

Other sites use scripted menus that are stored in a separate file. Text-based browsers and web readers cannot access these files. If that's the only method of navigation on your page, then you've stranded these visitors.

There are several simple workarounds to avoid navigation problems. You can include a text-only version of your navigation menu at the bottom of each page. Another option is to include an invisible one-pixel graphic on your site with the TITLE tag "Click here to open our main navigation menu." 

Add Shortcuts to Your Main Page Content

Some disability advocates claim that all Web pages should use invisible graphics with the TITLE tag. They want more than easy access to the navigation menu, though. They want a shortcut to the "meat" of the page.

Just like you, the web reader reads each web page left to right, top to bottom. Unlike you, however, web readers are not able to skip over or ignore unrelated material.

Let's say you're a blind customer who wants to sign into the Amazon.com Web site. Your web reader must step through three layers of menus and two ads on the top of the page. Then the web reader moves to the 37 links in the left column. The middle of the page contains several featured books. Your web reader would have to read through several pages of data before reaching the sign-in prompt at the top of the third column. 

A simple workaround is to ask your webmaster to place two invisible graphics at the top of each page. One graphic contains a link and a TITLE tag to the main text (or sign-in portion) on the page and the other graphic links to the text-only navigation menu at the bottom of your site.

Ask Your Vendors to Change

There are many other minor changes you can make to your site to make it more accessible to non-traditional web surfers. Talk to your webmaster about adding these features to your pages. Also talk to your home banking vendor about optimizing your site for web readers, as well as any other vendors you use to provide online content. 

Become an advocate for usable web content. It brings new meaning to a credit union's goal of serving the under-served.

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