Questions Your Bank Will Never Ask: Stay Alert for Scams

Every day, scammers are targeting, emailing and calling people randomly—or NOT so randomly—pretending to be a representative from their bank. They ask questions your bank will never ask, hoping to get answers they’ll use to steal money from you, or steal your identity. The best way to stop them is to be aware of their schemes. You can start by creating this rule for everyone you care about: “ NEVER talk to anyone who calls you out of the blue and says they’re from your bank”. Yes, this sounds rude, but even your bank won’t mind if you follow this advice. In fact, your bank would agree with this advice! If you follow the above rule, you’ll likely save yourself from every falling for the imposter scam. Maybe you’re wondering what kind of questions your bank will never ask you. That’s a great thing to know, because it will also be part of the awareness that will help you avoid falling for a scam and losing money – like in a bank representative fraud scheme or a bank failure scam . Perhaps the main point is this—if someone claiming to be your bank ask these questions, they are quite certainly a scammer! Here’s what they might ask. These are the questions scammers will ask in order to steal your money or your identity. Of course before they start asking questions, they need to get you engaged in conversation. Scammers are very successful at fooling thousands of people every day. Why? Because they know how to fool people with lies and deception. A bank imposter will make their phone call (or email) sound genuine and urgent. They do all they can to convince you that your account is in danger, and they are ready to help. Here are some real-life examples phone and email examples they use: The American Bankers Association (ABA) ran a campaign in 2002 addressed to consumers and banking institutions simultaneously addressing this important topic of bank impersonators. Their goal was to… There certainly might be a time when you have to talk to your bank about a banking issue or maybe a problem. They may even ask some specific questions about a recent transaction, or an account. Ideally, however, you initiated that call and conversation, and you dialed the number to your bank. It’s ALWAYS better if you initiated a conversation with a financial institution, to ensure you’re in control of the conversation. (The only logical exception to that would be if you expected to be called by someone on a specific day and time.) Scams are a serious, ongoing and growing issue. Banks know this and we all need to be more aware of it. Banks want you to be on high alert for potential fraudulent messages: One bank has this message on its website for its customers to see: “Be vigilant for unusual activity. If you receive an incoming call from someone claiming to be our bank, do not provide confidential information. Hang up and Immediately call the number on the back of your card.” Protecting your accounts and identity is more important than protecting a scammer’s feelings. Here’s is one thing you should do immediately for yourself and, if you have aging parents or young adults, do for them as well. For more information on how to protect yourself from scams, visit the Easy Prey website, which was founded by Chris Parker, CEO of WhatIsMyIPAddress.com.