Watch out for suspicious text messages, emails, and phone calls claiming to be from your bank.
These messages or calls may claim that there is an issue with your account needing immediate attention. Or, it may claim that you need to update your account, information, or password.
What should you do? Start by being skeptical. It could very well be a scam to steal your money or your personal information.
These scams are designed to trick you into divulging important information that could be used to drain your account or be used to sell to crooks.
Here are some important things to know and do if this should happen to you:
- Financial institutions won’t contact you out of the blue unless there is a major problem, and they won’t ask for your account number, password or PIN. Don’t give them out even if the caller threatens penalties.
- Don’t click any links or download attachments to verify anything. They probably want you to go to a fake website to fill out forms so they can collect information that can be used to steal your money or ID, or they might place malware on your device if your download an attachment.
- Don’t call phone numbers listed in the email or texts.
- Make sure you are on an official website before updating account information, such as changing a password or modifying payment information.
- If you have even a small suspicion that a call is a scam, hang up. Look for the toll-free number on the back of your bank card or look up your branch’s official phone number and call it. Tell the customer service representative who answers what happened and ask if there is really a problem with your account.
Knowing danger signs to look for and staying alert for phone or email scams can keep your money safe from crooks.
