Text scams are on the rise and Consumers’ fraud expert Kristy Desimone is here to help you learn how to protect your money. Tune into to Money, I’m Home to learn about the latest tricks scammers are using to get you to share your information.

 

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0:00:06.7 Lynne Jarman-Johnson (LJJ): Money, I’m Home, welcome. And I’m Lynne Jarman-Johnson with Consumers Credit Union, from finance to fitness and fraud, we have it all. And our financial fraud superhero is here today. Kristy Desimone is with us and I’ll tell you… Kristy I got another story for you, we always start with these stories, but this is a true one, so we have a brand new creative manager who has joined us and he wasn’t on the job more than a few weeks. This is what I find interesting, he receives a text, and the text says that, “Hey, your former CEO is looking for you to purchase Apple gift cards for the exec team.” Now, think about that, he’s brand new. He’s going to want to immediately perform up to the most capabilities, and there’s a link that he can go to so he can make sure that our former CEO is happy. Kristy, this was 100% fraud, but holy cow, how fast that could have gone AWOL.

0:01:05.9 Kristy Desimone (KD): 100%. And those texts messages are rampant these days, especially with the holidays passing us, there were a lot of shipments that people received a notice on like, “Hey, your shipment has been delayed, click here to see why,” and the link will take you to a page where you can purchase gift cards and then send it to the fraudster, or you give out your login information and they’re able to log into your online banking, or they also will point you out to a phone call where the fraudster will ask you to withdraw money and take it and deposit it elsewhere or mail it. So, all of those are ways they are able to get ahold of your information through the text messaging scam. And that is pretty scary.

0:01:51.8 LJJ: Well, it’s interesting, three of our kids received text messages from the same financial institution, not ours, but they all looked legit, they all said that 20 in one, 200 and another and like 150 and another were just debited out of their accounts. Well, they knew that it was fraud, because they don’t have accounts at that financial institution, but if you do, that’s where you’re immediately going to click that link.

0:02:19.2 KD: Yeah, definitely, especially too… I have had them sent to me. And for a moment, it was from another financial institution, which I didn’t have accounts at, but for a moment I was like, “Oh my God, I need to see what’s going on,” even though in my head I knew I didn’t have accounts at that institution. Their goal is to catch you off guard, their goal is to make you think, oh, like I have a bill. We’ve had people who have been like, oh, it was my energy bill, but it was from a different company that I don’t even have. But I gave them my information because I was like, “Oh, I have a bill, I got to pay this bill,” and so they catch you off guard and that’s how they’re able to get your information, and then you are like, I look back and I don’t even have an account there, but I’m over here talking to someone who says I have fraud on this account that I don’t have.

0:03:02.6 LJJ: So Kristy, here is a really important point, if you do click the link, that starts the ball rolling where people are starting to kind of look at you and say, “Hey, I’ve got somebody on the line,” I’ve got a… I’m hooking you, as they say, I’m phishing. And a lot of times what happens is a website comes up that looks so real. What is it that you look for to say, “Oh, this is not real.”? Obviously, if it’s not your financial institution or your energy company, you’re immediately going to know that, but let’s say it is, then what is it that you should look for?

0:03:34.2 KD: What you should do is know that we aren’t going to send you a message asking for your login information. You really should go to the app that you have on your phone and look and see what’s going on. We won’t take you to a page that’s like, “Hey, enter your log in credentials here,” because we don’t want your login credentials, we want to keep that safe, so that’s the first red flag you should look for. If it takes you to a website, you should go into your own app, you should exit out of it and go look at your own information so you know what’s going on, because once you put in that login information, they go in and they can take over your online banking and they have access to your accounts, they have access to transfer money, so that really is the scary part, is if you click on a link and it’s asking for information, it most likely is not a legitimate item because they aren’t going to do that.

0:04:25.3 LJJ: And obviously these fraudsters are just trying to find as many phone numbers that they could hit, whether or not an individual has a relationship with that company. That seems to be what’s happening.

0:04:38.4 KD: Correct. Yeah, so it honestly isn’t hard to buy phone numbers, so you can get phone numbers and you’re just going to blast it out, and then whoever falls for it, those are the numbers you’re going to share with other fraudsters. So, on the back end, once you fall for a scam sometimes you’ll see an increase in attempts because they know that you have fallen for one at least, so if you fall for one, let us know, call us, go to your financial institution, let us know. And then be on the look out for more because that’s most likely what’s going to happen is it’ll increase because they have seen that you’ve fallen for one and fraudsters talk to each other, so they’re able to kind of say, “Hey, this person is a go. Definitely reach out.” The moment somebody asks you for money, if you’re withdrawing funds, if you are putting funds on gift cards, if you’re depositing it into Bitcoin ATMs, that is a huge red flag that you need to stop and say, “I need to speak with my financial institution, this doesn’t feel right.”

0:05:35.4 LJJ: And we have actually had that happen to members, correct? Where they get to the point where all of a sudden they put the money in a place where this fraudster wants them to. It’s very difficult to get the money back, isn’t it?

0:05:48.3 KD: Right, if you get it back at all. A lot of times, unfortunately, we aren’t able to get those funds back, and a lot of times the fraudsters will stay on the phone with you at your financial institution to help coach you through questions, and that should be a red flag too, how many times you have to be on the phone with someone telling you how to answer a question at your financial institution, so that is concerning too. So, if someone’s like, “Hey, let me stay on the phone with you and help you answer these questions,” red flag, stop there. That’s not something that a company, a reputable company does.

0:06:21.9 LJJ: Well, they’re obviously recording that call, aren’t they? And they’re going to get the information to be able to get into your account without you even thinking about it.

0:06:29.5 KD: Correct, yeah, phone speakers can pick up a lot, so they definitely are able to get information, whether it’s your debit card PIN, whether it’s your account numbers, whether it’s anything like that, they’re able to pick up that information.

0:06:43.1 LJJ: So, tell us a little bit… You’re back from maternity leave. Congratulations on your son again.

0:06:47.6 KD: Thank you.

0:06:49.4 LJJ: It’s a joy. Have you been… When you got back in the seat to really fight fraud for us here at Consumers, I bet you’re hoping, “Oh, I hope the calls are down,” is that something that we are just going to have to watch over and over? It just seems like there’s so many more rampant frauds out there.

0:07:09.3 KD: Yeah, it really has ramped up, fraudsters are always going to be around, we just have to remember that giving out any type of information is a huge red flag. So sometimes they’ll ask for a code, so if you’re logging in and they’re like, “Give me that one time pass code,” nope, don’t give that code to anybody, that’s never a legitimate asking, online banking credentials is never legitimate. It really is a pause and take a breath moment, and that kind of is what people tell me they forgot to do when they’re on the phone with a fraudster.

0:07:40.7 LJJ: We actually have created a very special platform on fraud prevention, on security that is so important in your financial life, and you can get to everything that you need at the tip of your fingers at consumerscu.org, just type in fraud. And it is a plethora of information, and Kristy, that’s a lot because of you, thank you so much for your dedication and passion to helping our members.

0:08:06.9 KD: Of course, the number one weapon against fraudsters is education. If we can educate our members then we are able to fight that fraud on every possible front, and that gives you guys the most chance for success.

0:08:17.8 LJJ: Well, I’ll tell you what, everybody, you’re listening to the fighting fraud superhero. Kristy, thank you so much for being with us today.

0:08:25.7 KD: Aww, thanks so much. [chuckle]

0:08:27.9 LJJ: I hope everybody is having a wonderful, wonderful winter, it is winter right now. Woo. Everybody enjoy yourselves and make sure you stay safe and secure online and in your financial life and all things of life. I’m Lynne Jarman-Johnson. Thank you so much, Jake Esselink for your production skills. If you have a topic that you’d like to share, we sure would like to hear it. Just send it our way. Consumers Credit Union. Money, I’m home.

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