Fighting Fraud: Tips, Advice and Warning Signs

Podcast Transcription:

Money Talk is a podcast brought to you by PFCU where we will share tips and tricks and talk to the experts on all things finance related. Join us as we cover everything from credit and loans to cyber security and careers. No matter where you are in life, PFCU is here for you.

Maddy: Hey Money Talk listeners, thanks for joining me on this episode. Today I have a very special guest, I had the opportunity to interview Caroline here at PFCU and we go over all things fraud. And it was so interesting to me to just hear the kinds of scams and fraud that she sees and her department here at the credit union sees on a daily basis so enjoy this interview with Caroline.

Thank you for joining me today Caroline, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Caroline: Yes of course. So I am Caroline, I have been with the credit union for over eight years and I’ve been working in loss prevention for almost five. I really have a big focus on fraud and what’s going on with fraud internally and externally with our members.

Maddy: Awesome, so you are the perfect person to be talking about this topic today. Fraud is something that is forever changing and I think we definitely need to stay on top of it not only as a credit union but just as individuals trying to protect our information. Since you deal with fraud so often in your job, can you share with us some common scams or some fraud that you have either seen or just in general that people should be watching out for?

Caroline: Yeah, absolutely. So the scammers have beaten us out, they are fast, they are intelligent. The things that we really need to watch out for is the manipulation, the way that they can get into our heads. A couple of the big things that we see are romance scams, people meeting someone online and they convince them to give out their information and it’s true love and they ended up stealing money from them. We are seeing police impersonations and lawyer impersonations saying that you have a warrant out for your arrest in a state that you’ve never even lived in. We are seeing grandparent scams so someone calls and says “hi grandma, how are you?” And then grandma says, “oh Johnny, is that you?” and it just goes into it.  Car wrap scams, they say they’re going to pay you for wrapping your car in a logo for a drink company and then we also get people who’ve convinced someone to sell them their debit card and then there’s a lot of fraudulent deposits and transactions done with their debit card.

Maddy: Wow, that’s crazy and you’re right these people are getting so smart. You mentioned the grandparent scam, I had a personal experience with that. My husband’s grandparents had someone call, claiming to be my brother-in-law and they fell for it for a minute because he said he was in trouble and needed some money and they were like, oh my gosh, the grandson’s in trouble and we kind of had to talk them back like this is a scam. And they called their grandson up and made sure it wasn’t him and he’s like nope, I’m totally fine! It’s just crazy.

Caroline: Absolutely and I think they did the right thing because they reached out to their grandson. A lot of these people play on the fear and the urgency and they don’t stop and think and the money is gone and they can’t get it back so it’s very intimidating. It’s a fear factor completely controlling the situation.

Maddy: Do you have any tips that you can share that will help people keep their information safe so we don’t become victims?

Caroline: Yes, there are several good things. If you are signed up for our online banking, never give out your credentials. No one is going to ask you for your username, your password, they’re not going to text you a code and ask you to send it back to them so never let someone else into your online banking. If you have old checks, statements, anything with financial stuff- burn it, shred it, get rid of it but make sure you’re not just throwing it in the trash. We are seeing a lot of dumpster diving, a lot of old checks with closed accounts that are coming to resurface. And if you’re applying for loans or credit with anybody, make sure it’s a reputable business. You don’t want to be going out there and having a company say they’re going to deposit into your account and then you have to send them a gift card back proving that you got it. That’s a complete scam.

Maddy: Okay, yeah, is there anything else? I think you covered quite a bit

Caroline: That’s just a lot of it, go with your gut. If you feel like something’s wrong, come in and talk to us, call a friend, talk it through. Don’t just immediately go rushing in because somebody’s on the phone.

Maddy: Trying to scare you into doing something.

Caroline: Yeah.

Maddy: Yeah, that’s great advice. Just take a step back and talk to someone else that you trust.

Caroline: Absolutely.

Maddy: Can you share any examples that you’ve seen in your job or anything specific that you’ve seen in terms of scams or fraud?

Caroline: I can, so romance scams seem to be the big one. A lot of people are home right now and they’re isolated from friends and family or they’ve lost loved ones so they’re online looking at websites. Possibly dating websites or Facebook and they start chatting with these complete strangers and the strangers are saying that they are in the army, stranded overseas and they can’t get to their bank account and they’re going to have a friend mail them a check and this person needs to cash the check and then take the cash and turn it into bitcoin and send it back to this person who’s stuck on an army base. And the check comes back and we see people lose thousands of dollars because they already sent that money unfortunately and they are at the loss, they have to pay that back or figure out a way to recover that. So if somebody’s telling you that they’re stuck overseas and they can’t get to their bank account, ask yourself, why, if they’re working for a military, do they need all that access? They’re being housed and fed and they’re taken care of. They would never ask you to send bitcoin. Another recent one that we’ve seen is the police impersonation, calling and somehow getting just enough of their information a random phone call and then telling them that there’s a warrant out for their arrest in California and they need to send them $2500 in Walmart gift cards and they do it and then they say, okay now you need to send more. They keep going and they’re draining, potentially, their life savings.

Maddy: Right, yeah, that’s scary stuff. I know if I got that call, like immediately your first reaction is to panic a little bit. Like, I’m in trouble, what did I do? You know you didn’t do anything but it’s scary.

Caroline: Yes, they play off of that fear factor and they get into people’s head. Sick children, just anything that they can do. The big one too is selling your debit card, so, I had never heard of this before I was in fraud, Maddy. So they get someone, say, a college student, to give them and sell them their debit card and they say, okay because they think, there’s no money in their account, what are they going to do? Well, then they go to an ATM and they start depositing bad checks and withdrawing that money out as fast as they can so then the member who sold their debit card is a criminal accomplice because they allowed someone else access to their account and we may never find the person who actually did the transaction but that member is responsible and has to pay the credit union back and everything.

Maddy: Yeah, I’ve never heard of that either. And I think people just want to believe the good in other people and they just can’t wrap their heads around that there are bad people out there that just want to take your money or get your information.

Caroline: Yes, scammers have nothing better to do but think of ways to make a lot of money really fast.

Maddy: Yeah, so I know that we all can’t all be 100% safe from fraud and scammers all the time so if we do become a victim or we suspect we’ve become a victim what steps can people take?

Caroline: Absolutely, so if you are a victim of fraud, file a police report with your local police department. They can definitely take the information and start an investigation. I also recommend you visit our website under our education tab we have one area where you can go to freeze your credit if they get your social security number. You can report it to the FTC and the FBI as well as filing a police report so that makes everything on a bigger scale and more people can investigate it to see if it’s linked to other fraud that’s happening out there and make sure you let us know here at the credit union so that we can lock everything down and help you get your money back. And we cannot always get your money back, there are times if it’s gone and we cannot do that so we want to be ahead of it.

Maddy: Alright, good to know. So yeah, you guys, you can reach out to us anytime if you suspect anything happening or you need those accounts frozen. Reach out to the police department. There are people around you that can help. Well, that was some awesome information, I learned a lot. That’s super interesting and I think this will help our listeners keep their information safe, know what to look out for, take that step back, follow your gut, talk to people you trust if you suspect something is going on. Well thank you for joining me again!

Caroline: Absolutely, any time.

Maddy: See, what did I tell you? That was very interesting. I know I learned a lot talking to Caroline and I hope you guys did too. As she mentioned in the episode, we, as PFCU, we have a fraud education page on our website so if you visit pfcu4me.com, under the education tab, if you click on the fraud education page, we have a ton of resources for you to check out. If you have become a victim of fraud, if you want to learn more take a look at this site, it’s very useful, it’s very helpful and as always you can reach out to us any time, we’re here to help you if you have become a victim or you suspect you might be a victim, if you have a question, if you just want to talk something through, give us a call, send us an email. We are here for you any time.  

Money Talk is a podcast brought to you by PFCU. PFCU offers many products and services to fit your needs, from our various loan and account options to our team of financial coaches to help you reach your goals. Make sure to take advantage of the many conveniences PFCU offers such as the mobile app, mobile wallets, bill pay and more. Visit our website at pfcu the number four me dot com to learn more. PFCU is an equal housing lender and is federally insured by the NCUA.