5 Ways To Protect Yourself From Fraud in This New Bank Scam
Written by
Nicholas Morine
Edited by
Angela Corry
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Bank scams are getting more complex and infinitely more believable, thanks to the usage of AI-enhanced voice tools employed by tech-savvy scammers.
According to a recent report from CBS News, scammers are now calling unsuspecting potential marks from numbers which appear to be legitimate — in one instance, from Chase, but typically from one’s own banking institution — looking for confirmation codes to unlock their Zelle accounts.
“It no longer sounds like someone from an overseas call center,” Dr. Justin Cappos, a professor at New York University Tandon, said of the new breed of phishing scam via phone.
“They’re able to replicate our voices,” said Wendy Velazquez of Chase.
So, if you’re concerned about protecting yourself in this new age of fraud, what should you do?
Don’t Buy Caller ID Credentials
The first and easiest step: Hang up immediately and call your bank yourself.
Per the FTC’s Consumer Advice portal, the best thing you can do is to simply hang up if the inbound call asks for any private or personal information whatsoever. Then, if you’re concerned, you can contact the public-facing number for your financial institution yourself (including on the reverse of your debit or credit card) — confirming any suspicious activity and letting your bank know that a scam attempt was made.
If you believe you’re being scammed, or suspicious of such, you can also make use of your financial institution’s in-app tools — including a secure message functionality, or in-app calling — to double-check that your accounts are secured.
Lower Your Maximum Transfer Limits
If you’re highly suspicious of being a target of scammers or have been the victim of scams in the past, it may be wise to lower the maximum daily limit of your transfers — whether through banks or via apps such as Zelle or PayPal — in order to minimize the potential damage.
In fact, as American Banker noted, some institutions such as JPMorgan Chase clamped down on Zelle transactions earlier this year in an effort to curtail rampant scamming taking place through the platform.
Other common ways to protect yourself from phishing and other scam techniques include:
- Employing multi-factor authentication standards on your accounts and devices, including PIN codes, biometric unlocks, or hard-to-guess security questions, as a separate FTC bulletin outlined.
- Being naturally suspicious of any inbound communication, whether through email, SMS or phone call, which is seeking any degree of personal or private information. Again, it’s best to initiate contact with your financial institution if you have and degree of doubt.
- Deploy both a vulnerability scanner and a dark web scanner through a trusted service. Norton 360, for example, offers both of these functionalities, probing your device’s software and apps for potential leaks while also scanning the web for breaches of your own private information.
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