SECURITY CENTER

How to spot fraud and scams

I received a call from a woman who said she was a Chase representative. She said scammers had targeted my account and that I needed to send the money to a different account number immediately so that the scammer couldn’t take what was left. She was very professional and seemed to know everything about the bank. I asked her for her phone number, and it matched the one on the back of my debit card. I had no doubt I was talking to a Chase employee. So, I made the transfer to the account number she gave me, and she immediately hung up. I was horrified. My balance was zero.

 

I’m really tech savvy so I was one of those people who thought this would never happen to me. But she was so convincing and so nice. I really believed she was trying to help me keep my savings from being stolen.

 

Help protect yourself

 

Always be suspicious of legitimate looking or sounding calls, texts or emails from companies saying there’s a problem with your account or anyone asking for personal information to confirm who you are. Hang up and don’t click links in texts or emails or call any phone numbers you are given. Instead, find the company’s contact information on their website and call the number listed there to ask if there’s a problem with your account. To reach Chase, call the number on the back of your card or on the account statement.

We’re a group on a tight budget, but we decide to splurge a bit. We found a great house on a major vacation rental website and emailed through the website. A man called us from his cell and was really nice. Since we were a group, he even said we could each pay our share of the deposit using Zelle^® or a digital payment app. So, we each sent our share for the deposit, and later our shares for the balance.

 

As the trip date got closer, we called the guy to make sure everything was all set, but couldn’t get a hold of him. We emailed through the vacation rental but the guy who responded said he didn’t have our reservation and he had a different phone number. I called him in a panic, and he said he was the legitimate owner but that someone had copied his listing, right down to the exact wording. The legitimate owner said he’d reported the fake listing several times, but it still wasn’t taken down. We contacted the vacation rental website, but they said since we hadn’t paid through the site, their guarantee against fake listings did not apply.

 

Help protect yourself

 

Most major property rental sites offer fraud guarantees, but only if you pay and communicate with the owners through the site. Try to see properties in person and avoid sending deposits through wire transfers or digital payments like Zelle^® since that’s like sending cash and once you send it you may not be able to get it back.

My phone’s caller ID said it was the sheriff’s office. The woman said I’d missed my grand jury date and that there was a warrant out for my arrest.

 

She gave me a judge’s name, which my husband looked up and he was a real federal judge at the address she gave. The woman said I could pay a fine and meet with the judge or be booked at the detention center. She said if I didn’t comply, I could be arrested if I was pulled over for any traffic violation, no matter how minor.

 

I was so worried. Threatening calls from the sheriff’s office kept coming. It was overwhelming, because of the personal stuff they knew about me and the things they said that were going to happen to me if I didn’t take care of it right away. I paid $1,500 thinking things would be settled. But they kept calling with more stories of why more money was needed. When my husband called the number they’d given us to confirm the appointment with the judge, there was no record of any appointment. That’s when we knew it was a scam. We lost a total of $5,000.

 

Help protect yourself

 

Scammers can be very effective at sounding official and convincing you something bad has happened. Often, multiple scammers work together to make a story sound more real. Never trust a law enforcement, government, utility company, bank or others that contact you out of the blue, especially if they threaten you. Hang up and find a number for the organization yourself on their website and call them directly.

I’m a software engineer and I’ve read about all sorts of scams, and always thought, “I’d never fall for something like that”. For me, it started with a woman I met on a dating app. We were in different cities, so we both knew a relationship wasn’t going to happen. But over the course of several months, we had a lot of friendly back and forth texts and emails.  

 

We had a lot of similar interests, including investing in the stock market. We both talked about how we’d missed out on the hot tech stocks, so we didn’t want to miss out on the crypto surge. I’d done well putting some money in crypto and she too said she’d made a mint. She sent me the link to the platform she used, and I checked it out. I know tech and this looked like a legitimate site, everything was very professional. I signed up for an account, deposited a small amount, and made $1,500 on my first investment.

 

I put some more money in and did well again. So over time, this became my go-to investment, ultimately putting in $1.6 million. My balance grew to over $8 million. I thought I was set, even thinking of retiring early and paying off my kids’ college.

 

Then I went to make a withdrawal for my son’s tuition bill. And I got a message that said, “You have to repay the loan before you can make a cash withdrawal”. I’d never taken out a loan, so I thought it was just a glitch. The app wanted $1.5 million from me, threatening to freeze my account if I didn’t pay. There was no way to resolve it. No one responded when I tried the customer service chat, emails and phone numbers. I asked my friend if she was having any issues and next thing I knew, she’d blocked me, and her online profile disappeared. I went on the FBI site and read about fake crypto websites and apps. My entire life savings was gone in a matter of months. 

 

Help protect yourself

 

It’s important to know that pig butchering scams often work slowly. The online “friend” you meet may spend weeks, even months, building up your friendship and trust. So be wary. An online friendship that turns to discussing investments is very often a scammer. Be suspicious of claims like having insider knowledge about cryptocurrency investment opportunities, which include promises of quick and large returns, or if the person encourages you to use a specific app or platform for investing.

I answered a call that I thought was my son because it sounded exactly like his voice saying he’d had an accident, injured someone, and was in police custody.

 

After hanging up, I received several calls from someone claiming to be his public defender. He gave me his name, the county clerk’s info and told me to how to wire $9,000 for his bail.

 

Luckily, I called my son’s wife first, who said nothing had happened to him. I genuinely believed that the person on the phone was him. It was his voice, using words he would use. The “public defender” also sounded like a lawyer. He wasn’t too pushy and spoke very calmly. It really does show how sophisticated scammers have become.

 

Help protect yourself

 

AI generated voices sound very real because scammers get a small audio sample of someone’s voice and then run through an AI program that replicates the voice. So be extra careful of friends or family members calling suddenly and needing help. Hang up and call them back on a number you know to be theirs, or call someone else who knows them. You may also want to think twice before you post a video on social media because scammers can easily access a sample of your voice.

I found a job posting for a well-known company in my field on a major job site. Without giving it a second thought, I submitted the application and was contacted to do a video interview. It all went well, and I was offered the job with a nice signing bonus.

 

Before I started, my manager emailed that HR had doubled the amount of my bonus by mistake. He instructed me to go ahead and deposit the bonus check and to just use Zelle^® to send back the overpayment amount. I assumed it was an honest mistake and certainly wasn’t going to make waves with my new boss, so I deposited the check and set up three different Zelle^® payments. Lucky for me, my bank flagged the Zelle^® payments as being unusual and blocked them. It turns out the job listing, the job, the bonus, and the bonus check were all fake. 

 

Help protect yourself

 

No honest potential employer will ever send you a check to deposit and then tell you to send part of the money back. Honest employers will also never ask you to pay to get a job. Anyone who does is a scammer. 

 

You can also look up the name of the company or hiring manager along with the word "scam" or "complaint" to see if there's any red flags. Remember that scammers are sophisticated and they know how to use technology, social media, and they even pay for ads to lure prospective victims.