NATCHEZ — Natchez residents are now more informed about protecting themselves — at least the ones who attended Miss-Lou Banking Alliance’s Protect Your Identity Day at Co-Lin Natchez.

The Miss-Lou Banking Alliance, a group comprised of representatives from all the local banks, presented three educational seminars on the dangers of identity theft.

Banking alliance member and IT specialist at Britton & Koontz Bank Curtis Moroney said he was pleased with the turn out for the event.

“It went pretty well. The room wasn’t full, but we had a reasonable number of people,” Moroney said. “We had a good number of senior citizens and a large group of students from Trinity.”

Moroney said the seminars were planned to last about 90 minutes, but the 9 a.m. session lasted two hours.

“We had a lot of good questions, and people asked about various things and that is always a good sign,” he said.

“They said it was very informative, and they were interested and concerned.”

Topics discussed included credit card, debit card and check safety, phone, mail and e-mail scams, federal regulations and what to do if your identity is stolen.

Moroney said alliance members went into the seminars hoping to teach citizens how to be safer but said that some of the attendees turned out to be pretty good teachers as well.

“We had one lady who’s purse had been stolen, and she talked about the ordeal she went through,” Moroney said.

“Her point was it isn’t just the money you stand to lose, because a lot of times you get that back from banks and credit card companies. The big part is the trouble it causes and time it takes to get things straightened out.”