The scammers just keep getting more and more creative. On this episode of Money, I’m Home, Lynne is joined by Consumers fraud expert Kristy Desimone to discuss how scammers are taking to social media in order to gain access to your hard-earned money.

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0:00:07.2 Lynne Jarman-Johnson (LJJ): Money, I’m Home. Welcome in. I’m Lynne Jarman-Johnson with Consumers Credit Union. From finance to fitness, we have it all. And today we’ve got our monthly special on fraud prevention. Kristy Desimone is with us today. She is a certified fraud specialist here with Consumers Credit Union. She’s meeting, talking with members all the time about how to really prevent fraud and scams in your life. Hey, thanks for joining us, Kristy.

0:00:32.0 Kristy Desimone (KD): Oh, thanks for having me. I love being here. [chuckle]

0:00:37.1 LJJ: I know today you’ve got a really interesting topic, especially for small business and those that perhaps are entrepreneurs, and it’s a focusing on something that’s called an artist modeling social media scam. Now, what is that all about?

0:00:52.0 KD: Yeah! So, we’ve started to see a trend in people being reached out to on social media, and the fraudster will say, “Hey, I love your pictures. I want to use them in an artistic drawing,” or “Hey, you could be a model spokesperson for our business. All I’m going to do is send you this check and you’ll just have to send some funds back to pay for the supplies or the photographer,” and in reality, it’s a scam. They’re just trying to get those funds.

0:01:19.7 LJJ: Well, with the prevalence of TikTok, Instagram, social media influencers, people who all of a sudden have a really big rise in their views and their numbers, this could be something that would be easily fallen into.

0:01:34.4 KD: 100%, and most likely they’re going to email you that check and we know after listening to these podcasts that emailing checks is not a thing. So, they email it to you and then they ask you to take a screenshot of it and you mobile deposit it and send them funds. [chuckle]

0:01:49.5 LJJ: So, when that happens, on the back end of that, I know that for instance, financial institutions who do remote deposit capture as an example, they might have a hold on monies for a certain amount of days and then release them because of the fact that fraud is so high. And so, these checks are just totally fraudulent.

0:02:09.6 KD: They really are, and a lot of times the member doesn’t even sign the back of the check because it’s already typed in back there. So that’s a big red flag that if you don’t have to sign the back of the check, it’s already filled out for you, that that is definitely not legitimate. [chuckle]

0:02:24.2 LJJ: Has this happened? Like, you’ve just mentioned this happened more frequently, have you heard that it’s even happening more frequently with our members?

0:02:30.8 KD: Yeah. So, we definitely have seen an increase with our members too, and a lot of times when we call them, it’s just a matter of education. It’s a matter of saying, “Hey, this isn’t the way checks are distributed, they aren’t emailed, and this is a huge red flag, and sending funds back, as we know, is a telltale sign that it’s too good to be true.”

0:02:51.5 LJJ: That is the case here, right? You get kind of giddy when all of a sudden you start to go viral, as they say, and when that happens, there are truly people who are well-versed in making sure that if you are approached that this is not a scam, and there are people who… That’s what their business is now, is to help people who have become influencers on social media versus getting hit by scams that come right along with it.

0:03:19.2 KD: Right, exactly. And this is definitely generationally too. It’s a, “Hey, you’re a younger generation, you may not use checks as often. You didn’t grow up with checks.” So emailing checks seems normal to you because you don’t really understand how checks work or that you don’t use them often. I don’t know how many members have told me like, “Oh, I didn’t know that getting checks that way wasn’t a legitimate way to receive a check,” and we wouldn’t expect them to know because checks haven’t been as prevalent with the younger generation as they have.

0:03:51.3 LJJ: I think one of my kids once said, “What’s a check?”

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0:03:52.5 KD: Exactly! I know I had someone Google how to fill out a check, and you’re like, “Yeah, like 20 years ago, it’s all normal.” And now you’re like, “I don’t even know how to fill it out.” [laughter]

0:04:05.4 LJJ: Oh wow. Well, Kristy, we can’t thank you enough for all of the things that we talk about here on Money, I’m Home really focus on financial education and wellness. You have been just so tremendously helpful for our members, not only just on your day-to-day job, but in this podcast, too. Thank you so much.

0:04:23.6 KD: Yes, I love saving our members from scams. Education is so important these days.

0:04:29.1 LJJ: Well, and if you have a scam that you want a really deep dive, please send that information our way or something that might have happened to you that it’s not even on our radar yet. Because every day, Kristy, isn’t it true that every day there’s something new that pops up?

0:04:43.4 KD: Yeah. Every day they’re trying different ways, different things, we learn new things, and it’s an ever-growing problem that we need to combat by everyone being out there looking out for each other kind of deal.

0:04:53.9 LJJ: Well, thanks again, Kristy. Hey, thank you for listening and thanks Jake Esselink for your production skills. We sure do want to keep you safe, and you can say, “Money, I’m Home.” I’m Lynne Jarman-Johnson with Consumers Credit Union.

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