Anyone—even you—can become a scam victim

Regardless of their upbringing, level of education or amount of life experience, anyone can get scammed, whether by being tricked into physically handing money over to a fraudster, or by giving up confidential information and financial account access so their money is stolen. Scammers are smart, sophisticated, experienced and able to impersonate almost anyone. These crooks can use detailed imposter scripts, fake emails, realistic graphics and image, false email addresses, smishing text messages and hijacked phone numbers that appear to be authentic and, often, connected to a legitimate business the intended victim knows and trusts.

Here is an example of a well-planned, multi-step scam aimed at someone who should have been a difficult target to trick. In February 2024, the financial advice columnist for New York Magazine—someone that could be expected to be savvy regarding money—revealed in a published column in the magazine that she had been cleverly bamboozled out of $50,000 in cash in October 2023. According to the writer, after withdrawing the money from an account, she had put the money into a taped-up shoe box and personally handed it to someone pretending to be a U.S. government Central Intelligence Agency investigator. The “investigator” had driven up to the sidewalk at her apartment building in a luxury sports utility vehicle to personally receive the money so it would be “safe,” instead of remaining in her risky, supposedly compromised financial account. The magazine writer had already talked with a group of other very convincing scammers pretending to be a customer service representative from a very popular online merchant and another completely fake investigator purporting to be from the federal government consumer watchdog agency the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The net result of this elaborately plotted, scripted and carefully executed scam was substantial monetary loss, public embarrassment and a very hard financial and life lesson learned for the writer.

If someone that you do not know tells you on the phone or writes you with the following messages (maybe not exactly the same words, but with a similar meaning), then become extremely suspicious. These sorts of instructions on how to take some unusual and illogical actions with your money and accounts are strong warning signs that you are being hit with a scam, a sham and something you should get away from quickly—and attempt to verify independently of the person who contacted you.

What some scammers could say to try to steal your money…

1. Don’t hang up on this call…since your money, reputation or personal freedom is at high risk and you cannot stop to do anything else. Do you usually have callers that insist you must stay on the call while performing a task they are directing you to accomplish because it’s an emergency? If the scammer calling you wants to keep you continuously on the phone while you are going to a website, driving or walking to withdraw or transfer money, buying gift cards or cryptocurrency, or some other action, then that should set off warning bells in your mind that you are being ensnared in an illegal activity.
2. You must act now because…it’s an emergency and you will lose your money or be arrested. Scammers say there is an immediate problem to pressure you so you don’t have time to think; they want to create panic and a sense of urgency by saying you must act now to fix the situation. If someone is pressuring you, stop, think, get their phone number (but don’t call it). For whatever financial institution, federal or state government department, or law enforcement agency the caller is purporting to be from, look up a number for that organization, call it and ask to speak to the fraud department to describe what happened to you and check if the caller may have been legitimate or faking (spoofing) the real phone number as part of a scam.
3. Let me get my “supervisor” on the line with you now to explain the severity of the situation. With a phone call scam, the scammer may attempt to make the situation seem more authentic and legitimate by escalating its importance so it now requires the attention of a fake supervisor. The presence of this phony supervisor adds to the realism that you are talking with people in a call center or company office. The unreal “supervisor” could be setting next to the primary scammer, or there could only be one person on the call disguising their voice so it sounds as if you are speaking to a new, different person.
4. You must not tell the truth…about this communication and situation to anyone involved with your financial accounts…even to a family, friend or colleague. What organization or government agency involved in legal activities would ask you to lie to your family or to a bank teller, investment representative, financial advisor, friend or colleague? Why should a client have to lie to the people they rely on and then be dishonest with organizations guarding and investing their money? No government or company should be instructing you to lie to anyone.
5. Don’t trust anyone you know…and don’t tell anyone about this situation. Fraudsters do not want their victims in contact with any person or organization that could interfere and slow down or stop their scam. Scammers want to move fast, confuse and overwhelm their victims with threats, information and immediacy, so anyone who would make their target stop and start focusing on rational questions about what is happening is a threat to them. The crooks want to cut victims off from anyone who might see through their plot and try to help their prey.
6. Give us money or account details right now or you’ll have to pay a large fine or be arrested or deported. The scammer may insist that government agents are coming to your home now—or are standing by to arrest you, or that you are facing a large, instantaneous monetary fine. American governments and law enforcement agencies (either federal or state) generally do not threaten, blackmail, frighten or otherwise bully citizens into paying fines or give up account details with phone calls, emails or texts. Often, the U.S. government conducts its business through written communications sent through the U.S. Postal Service over days, weeks or months of communications, not through abusive and intimidating phone calls, emails or text messages telling you to do something immediately.
7. You must move your money out of your current accounts to “protect” it. Wanting to get control of your money quickly by frightening you is a typical criminal procedure. If your money is being kept in a bank, credit union, brokerage or investment firm then it should already be protected and, depending on the type of account, insured by an agency of the federal government. What could be so catastrophically wrong with trusted financial institution that would you need to suddenly liquidate, withdraw or transfer your funds to an account somewhere else controlled by someone you don’t know?
8. You need to physically withdraw cash from accounts and deliver or send it to this unknown person for safekeeping. As with the previous example above of the New York Magazine writer, how does giving untraceable cash to a total stranger offer more protection than having it in an account with a respected financial company? It is not a good idea to remove cash and just deliver (or send via U.S. mail or a commercial shipping service) it to someone who is an imposter credibly posing as an agent, courier or special investigator for a company or government department. Do not take out cash and give it to a stranger to “protect” it.
9. Go to a Bitcoin automated teller machine (or get other cryptocurrency such as Dogecoin, Ethereum and others) and send the cryptocurrency you’ve exchanged or purchased to someone. Similar to electronic fund transfers, payments made in cryptocurrency are difficult to trace and usually can't be stopped or reversed. Once the cryptocurrency is paid to someone, then it’s gone and may not be recoverable. Digital currencies are not issued by the United States as a legal form of payment and have a limited set of governmental regulations controlling them and preventing their illegal use for criminal activities. According to the U.S. government agency the Internal Revenue Service in its Notice 2014-21, “Virtual currency…does not have legal tender status in any jurisdiction”.
10. Buy gift cards and send them to us, or read on a phone call, email or text us each card’s registration codes and Personal Identification Number (PIN). Gift cards are an easy way to convert a cash or a credit card transaction into another form of payment that’s untraceable. Know that type of financial conversion could be considered a simple form of money laundering—which is illegal. A legitimate company, person—or even a U.S. state or the federal government—will not ask you to pay them by converting money into gift cards; that’s not a normal or legal type of payment in the United States. The scammers will make up a bogus reason as to why they require gift cards and then ask you to send them either a photograph of the back of the gift card(s) or read them the registration-serial-PIN numbers on the card(s); then your money is gone, and there is no way to get it back. If anyone asks you for payment by gift card, that’s a very good sign they are trying to defraud you and cover up their illegal activity.

If you hear or see any version of any of statements above, you should be alert and aware that you may be interacting with a criminal—some next steps to consider are…

• Don’t take any action that the caller or writer requests or demands.
• Instead of doing what they say, stop the conversation or message exchange and block the caller, texter, or email address from getting to you.
• Next, contact the fraud department at the financial companies, government agencies and any other organizations that might be affected by the scammer’s allegations.
• Then warn family and friends of the attempted scam to help protect them.
• Report the scam to state and U.S. government agencies, such as your state’s attorney general’s office and the federal agencies detailed below.

Concerned about other types of scams in the form of fake emails, false job listings and suspicious shopping websites? Delta Community’s blog has free advice on these topics

More information on protecting accounts—and a range of financial advice—is available from free Delta Community Financial Education Center webinars on a range of money-related topics. You can visit the Financial Education Center's Events & Seminars page to register for its no-cost, on-demand webinars or in-person workshops.

There more than a few Delta Community blog and security posts on managing online personal security to check out:

• Find out more about how to keep your computer’s data secure, even when getting rid of the computer.
• Understand why a crook wants to fix your computer—don’t fall for tech support scams.
• Learn how to make your mobile and online payments safer.
• How to protect yourself online while working or learning from home.
• Why to question your security questions.
• ​How to secure your home network.
• You should know how to tell if someone’s stolen your identity and how to prevent it.
• Do you want to learn how to make your mobile and online payments safer?
• How to get a stronger password and use a password manager.
• Be on the lookout for phishing, smishing and vishing attacks.
• Be vigilant for spoofed phone calls.
• Harden your email account against an attack.
• Read tips on how to avoid getting scammed when selling on auction sites.
• Did you know that only scammers get paid with gift cards or cryptocurrency?
• Before you connect, be careful with public Wi-Fi networks.
• How to protect your laptop and phone while traveling.
• Think for a minute and then don’t click 'unsubscribe' from spam emails and texts—managing spam.