Waco Tribune-Herald from Waco, Texas • 53

Tribune Herald SECTION Classified 7E SUNDAY June 15, 1986 (Credit card fraud cut -by ByBILLMENEZES The Associated Press NEW YORK Another chapter in 'the fight against credit -card fraud and counterfeiting begins next month as merchants stop ac-, cepting MasterCards that do not bqarahologram. MasterCard International Inc. has notified merchants that July 1, they should not accept Mas-' terCards that do not include the three-dimensional image in at metallic rectangle on the front of the card. -Visa International Inc-has set A Jan. 1 deadline for replacing its old-style cards with the new hologram Visa cards; and Master-Card expects holders of the new cards to have received them by the deadline.

Holograms are me of several technologies the card companies are usingto make it tougher to use bogus Cards, which account for millions! of dollars a year in fraudulent transactions. The banks that issue MasterCard and Visa began phasing in the new-style cards in 1983, when counterfeit card use was soaring. Dan Brigham, a spokesman for Visa, in San "Francisco, said that after totaling about 1740,000 in 1981, counterfeit bn Visa rose to 10l9 million in 1982, $225 million in 1983 and $39.2 million in 1984 before falling' to $34.4 million last- year. There are about 136 mil- The startup of KXXV Channel 25's broadcast operations last year Staff photo Rod Aydatotto Is the latest venture of Waco businessman Robert Mann As a young man, he decided he would be more than a small banker in a small town and he has turned those dreams into reality. A look at the Waco businessman's career is a lookatthe direction of Texas1 banking industry for the past 30 years.

i The companies have attempted lion Visas in circulation, Brigham to expand the use of point-of-sale terminals, which determine whether information printed on the front of a card matches the in-, formation coded into the magnetic strip on the back. 1 Since November, Visa has offered rebates to card-issuing banks that bought such terminals for use in high-risk areas, such as Miami, New York and Los Angeles, which accounted fa between 70 percent and 80 percent of aU its US. card fraud, the company said. The card companies also are testing the next wave of card technology, the smart card with an imbedded microchip that stores information and codes which may be used not only for authorizing transactions but also for security. MasterCard has conducted a pilot program for its smart, card in Columbia, and West Palm.

Beach, Flit, over the past year and' hopes to have a version of the card in national use in the next four to five years, Hogg said. Were confident the criminal world wiU not go out and try to do. Russell Hogg, chairman of terCard, said counterfeit losses for MasterCard peaked at $25 million in 1983, dropping to $15 million in 1985. MasterCard has about 120 million bards outstanding. With the hologram we hope to cut the $15 million in half, maybe even more, he said.

Hogg said that in the early 1960s, bogus versions of the old-style cards could be made on printing presses. So MasterCard decided to introduce the hologram as part of a plan for a more secure card that could cheaply replace the old cards over two to three years. In addition to the difficulty of replicating the hologram, the image is placed over the final four numbers on the card, making it virtually impossible to alter the numbers without damaging the hologram. No one has been able to duplicate it, and those who have tried to do it have not been able to approxi-. mate it to any degree that would appear dose, Hogg said.

Mas-. considering methods of putting together groups of banks under corporate ownership as early as 1961. At the time, there wereno bank holding companies in Texas. So I got busy and started trying to form one, Mann said. In addition, he wanted to put his banks on the public market and sell stock.

So Mann acquired banks in Port Arthur, Richardson, Longview, Kilgore and Bryan with the idea of forming a bank holding company. The WoodviUe banker's first contact with Waco came when he began, negotiations. with Wacoans Howard Hamilton and Earl Harrison, both now deceased, at First National Bank (now MBank Waco) about joining his group. Mann was 39 years old. They were interested in such a group as this Mann said.

They aU were going to retire in another year and did n't have a succession of ment at the First National Bank, so my proposal to them just kind of fit hand-in-glove with what their plans were. I. had an idea with a certain amount of youth. Harrison and Hamilton agreed to seU First National Bank, Mann said. Included in the deal was First Financial which owned BeUmead State Bank.

But the deal required Mann to move to Waco from WoodviUe. They said we cannot afford to -have our bank here in Waco owned by a young man living in WoodviUe, Texas, with a population of 2500 people, Mann said. And it did make, sense that we needed a lead in a larger city. If I would agree to move to Waco, they would seU me- the -bank and support putting the bank in a holding company that we were organizing at that time. And I was anxious to move from Please see DESPITE, Pag 6E dOamrOi MNcCM WMM 1 staff photo Mod AyMoOt Holograms, such as tha bird on this Visa card, make tougher to use bogus credit cards cate old-style cards after Jan.

1. Even before the demise of the old-style cards, counterfeiting losses had been declining because of other measures, including the use of new technology, increased bank scrutiny and a stepped up program by the U.S. Secret Service to blunt the counterfeit card the chip cards are on the Hogg added. Nancy Muller, a spokeswoman for American Express said her company had not changed the design of its cards because the cards already were regarded as hard to counterfeit American Express long has used fine lettering in its card design, and detection of frauds, is aided further- by the -cards uniform appearance, she Aasoctatodffiwa By ALAN NELSON Tribuno-Heraki business editor From the beginning, Robert Mann marched to the beat of a different drummer. Sometimes he remade the beat to match his step.

And if that didnt work, went out and bought another drummer. 1 His titles are impressive. They Include chairman of the board and chief executive officer of United Bankers a nine-bank holding company with $800 mil-' lion in assets; managing and general partner of Central Texas Broadcasting Co parent company of KXXV-Channel 25, which started broadcast operations in chairman of the board of First Financial a $20. million corporation; and chairman of the board of United Western Life Insurance $1.4 million corporation. But while Mann, 55, likes to create publicity for his sv The background design on the all things necessary to mass pro-features duce holograms when they know cards also new-style ultra-fine printing that is tougher to duplicate.

-After July MasterCard merchants are supposed to confiscate any old-style cards used in attempted transactions. Hogg said he did not believe there would be many problems with legitimate cardholders because MasterCard banks have had three years to get all the new cards issued. Brigham said Visa merchants have not been instructed to confis- operations, he tends to shy away from personal interviews. His story begins in tiny Wood-ville in the heart of the Big Thicket Mann is a third-generation banker. He grew up in his fa- tilers bank, graduated from Southern Methodist University, served.

a year in the U.S. Air Force, ana went back to Wood-' vine to work in the Citizens Bank of WoodviUe. Upon father's death, he assumed' the dency of the bank at age 29. '-A look at Mann's career is a look at the direction of the state's banking industry for the past 30 years. Mann decided as a young man that he would be more than, a smaU banker in a smaU town.

A small country banker had to wear several hats credit man- ager, personnel director, public relations, operations manager 1 and tax expert. In addition, there is not much of a market for a smaU country banks stock. As early as 1961, Mann began ojf O-'- said William Trainer, an analyst with Merrill Lynch. Theyre mak- ing the accessary changes to meet whatever problems arise. That's -why they nave continuously been able to increase their share not only of the total restaurant market but also of the fast-food market" To go wherever Americans can be found, McDonald's is busy erectirtg Golden Arches not rally in its usual locations along crowded highways; but in semi-captive -markets museums, airports, hospitals, truck stops ana toll roads where a McDonalds is sometimes the only choice.

In a year or two, the company plans to start serving Big Macs in ball parks and maybe even national parks. And it is talking with rations about opening shop in company cafeterias. Farther afield, the company that has a remarkable 84 consecutive quarters of record sales and profits is pushing hard to open more' restauagnts oveseas. A McDonald's just opened in Bang Changing world keeps McDonalds hopping By STEVEN GREENHOUSE New York Times News Service OAK BROOK, I1L Chef salads and shrimp salads have recently 1 joined the McDonald's hamburger empire. There are sun-drenched atriums in some McDonald's, and in a few hospital cafeterias, nurses are lining up to buy Big Macs.

Although the hamburger still holds center stage at the world's biggest fast-food chain, on the menu it is surrounded, more and more, by chlckep, seafood and bis-cuits. If McDonalds latest expert- ment pans out, there will even be '-chocolate chip cookies baked daily at each restaurant The hamburger giant is changing fast perhaps more so than at I any other time in its 31-year history. It is still far ahead of its competitors, but with Americas eaUng habits changing so rapidly, the -fast-food colossus is' moving ag- gressively to keep such powerful rivals as Burger King and Wendy's from gaiihng on it This an aware company," kok and another will soon follow in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, the first in Eastern Europe. Indeed, some company officials say that within five years, half the 500 McDonald's opened each year will be overseas, up from about one-third today. On the architectural front, the company is leaving its.

cookie cut-' ter, red-brick buildings' behind and adding such things, as planter boxes, atriums and blond wood decor. It spent $250 million last year on remodeling McDonald's, and there is- now even a McDonalds in a converted, century-old clapboard house in Maine. The strategy, company officials say, is-simple. Were not leading anyone, were foDowiflg the consumer, said Jack M. Greenberg, McDonalds chief financial officer.

Thus, when Americans became less enthusiastic about beef, McDonald's added' deep-fried, thumb-sized Chicken McNuggets. It is testing McPizza and a chick-W Please see CHANGING, Page 5E McDonald's, thepeatlon of the States and 2,000 abroad late Ray A. has about 7,000 restaurants liUhe United 4.