We have experienced an alarming increase of phone calls from supposed banks and financial institutions from Jan 2022 to present. Usually they start with, “someone is trying to use your credit card for a transaction on your Bank Account from ?? Citi, B of A, Wells Fargo, or whatever. The caller guesses from a number of banks to figure out if you have an account with them. Then they ask you to repeat your account number to them to “confirm” the account that they sometimes dont even know. Once you start talking to them, they keep you on the line until you are exhausted and worn down. At that point, they have you.
Another type of scam involves the caller with a certain amount of information gleaned off of the web from the recent data leaks that could be from your bank, Facebook, Instagram, or a number of other social media sites that have little cyber protection on their systems.
One such scam that Global Security Support suffered was someone who changed their Caller ID to ours, and used our phone number as the call back number. Then we got a number of calls from consumers in another area protesting our calling them. Instantly when we saw this, we explained to the caller that we would never solicit them or call them. We only work with our known clients and when someone comes to us, they are usually a referral or an indirect referral. So, we understand security and scams like few others do.
Tell the caller that you will write down their name and phone number, and then call them back. Usually their name or the return number is false so this indicates to you that the call is a scam.
If they say that calling your bank will NOT be recommended, HANG UP!!!. NEVER believe such a scammer and do your best to warn other people as well. I have also witnessed a traveler from Mexico who received such a call when he was in my car. The caller explained to him that they would shut down his account, and as a traveler this would be devastating to him. So, he proceeded to listen to the phone call for more than an hour. One he got off the phone, he was exhausted, disturbed and generally shaken by this experience. I tried my best to calm him down and explained how well choreographed these scammers are.
When someone transfers you to another “extension” and it takes only seconds, instead of the usual minutes, then you can also understand that the caller is likely a scammer and has expertly designed a convincing way to gain access to your bank account/s.
To prevent this from happening, call your bank and ask them to setup alerts for ALL transactions. No matter how small, then you can see transactions that you may have setup for 1.99 USD or whatever amount. If you set a limit of say 50 USD then you may never see transactions that scammers try to get away with for amounts under that.
In 2022 and beyond, it is critical to understand that the entire system is under attack and with inflation and the other economic pressures worldwide, people are looking to invent novel ways to scam you out of your hard earned money.
