Learn to Fight Back

A card skimmer is an illegal physical or electronic device that criminals attach to gas pumps, point of sale terminals and ATMs. It reads and steals the personal information located in the magnetic strip on the back of your card. There may also be a pinhole camera installed that records your keystrokes when you enter your PIN.  Inspect all terminals for anything that looks or feels ‘off’ before inserting your card.  Avoid ATMs in isolated spaces that are not regularly monitored by staff.  Tap to pay whenever possible.  Learn more in our ATM Safety entrada en el blog.

Charity scammers try to trick people into donating money to a fake or fraudulent organization.  While these scams can occur at anytime, they are most popular during times of natural disasters or human tragedies. Scammers may copy the logos and websites of well known charities.  They will call or text or email you out of the blue and may use hard sell techniques or ask you to pay in unusual ways such as gift cards or cryptocurrency. If you wish to help an organization, navigate directly to their website and follow their giving procedure.  Before donating money use the Navegador de caridad website to research recognized charitable organizations.

An unexpected check received in the mail is almost always a scam.  Maybe you’ve sold something on the Internet and the buyer sends you too much money.  They apologize for the problem, ask you to deposit the check, keep a little cash for yourself and return the rest.  Or maybe it’s a prize from a contest you don’t remember entering.  All you need to do to claim it is to send a ‘servicing fee’ or some such thing.  These checks usually contain fraudulent identifying information.

Our tellers are trained to recognize and put a hold on such checks. If it turns out that they’re good, congratulations!  But never, never send money or gift cards or cryptocurrency until the check has fully cleared.

Due to numerous corporate data breaches in recent years, criminals can buy lists on the dark web that identify people  with large amounts of debt – student loans, credit cards or even vehicle loans with big balances.  The scammer makes up a fancy corporate name and contacts these individuals, offering a plan to reduce or even forgive their debt in exchange for a pricey fee up-front. Of course, the debt relief never arrives and the victim is out the money that they forwarded.

This scam involves a fraudulent online store or sales listing which advertises huge (too-good-to-be-true) discounts on popular products.  The perpetrator often steals logos from well known retailers and creates websites that mimic legitimate ones.  They encourage up-front untraceable methods of payments such as wire transfers, gift cards, Cash App, or cryptocurrency.  After stealing the victim’s money or credit card details, no merchandise is delivered.

The basic definition of identity theft is when a person steals a victim’s private data – name, Social Security #, credit card details – and uses it without permission to commit fraud. They often purchase expensive items, open new credit cards, take out loans, and file fake tax returns in order to receive the expected refund.  In more sophisticated operations, the criminal obtains another person’s online passwords and usernames.  With that information they can infiltrate the victim’s bank accounts and withdraw the entire balance.

A criminal calls an older adult pretending to be a grandchild in a crisis situation who needs money for ransom, bail, medical bills or travel out of an unsafe place.  Sophisticated voice cloning techniques are used so that the caller sounds just like the actual grandchild who needs the funds right away.  He/she requests you to use quick methods such as cryptocurrency, gift cards, wire transfer or cash transfer apps such as Cash App or Venmo.  They beg the caller not to contact their parents or other relatives.  These calls often arrive late at night or during very early morning hours.  A good way to foil this scheme is to have a predetermined family codeword.  Ours is the unusual name of my husband’s first dog.

This scam happens most often during tax season, though it continues year round. Criminals pretend to be from the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) to steal your money and personal information. They make contact via phone, text or email and claim that you owe back taxes or made a serious error on your return.  (In an alternate scenario, they reveal that you are owed a large refund and they can help you collect it.)  They use official sounding names like the Tax Mediation and Resolution Oversight Department and may claim that the local police are on their way to arrest you for tax evasion.  They might even have the last 4 digits of your Social Security number.  These are all fakes.  The IRS will never make their first contact by phone, text or social media.  Their initial outreach is always by physical mail.

Scammers pretend to be with a law enforcement group such as the sheriff’s department or local police.  They claim that a warrant is out for your arrest because you missed jury duty or have an unpaid fine.  They pressure you to act immediately and pay money to avoid going to jail.  Payment must be made using wire transfer, gift cards, Bitcoin or Cash App.  If you receive such a message, disconnect immediately. Don’t answer any questions or press any buttons. Valid law enforcement agencies do not demand payment over the phone and they don’t warn people of arrest warrants.

Phishing is a cybercrime attempt to steal your personal information and/or install malware on your computer.  It involves texts, emails, and phone calls from fraudsters pretending to be represent a trusted company.  These scams are designed to create a sense of urgency – your account will be closed; we need to verify a large purchase; you missed jury duty and a warrant has been issued for your arrest, etc.

This is the most common fraud we deal with at ATFCU.  Fraudsters spoof our phone numbers and plan their attacks for nights and weekends.

QR codes are increasingly popular because they work so well directing people to information. They are easy and inexpensive to develop and scammers create codes that look legitimate and direct the user to phishing or harmful websites.  Fake codes can appear literally anywhere – in public, on websites, in email, or even on physical mail.  Always preview the link tied to the QR code before opening it.

Romance scams are targeted at lonely people of any age. The scammer gains a victim’s trust under the pretense of a budding romantic relationship or friendship.  A scam is often begun with a text message or a friend request on social media. The scammer slowly develops the connection, often sending pictures, videos and love letters to build trust and establish a bond.  They will spend hours a day talking with their ‘new love’.  The monetary requests begin after the victim is emotionally engaged. The amount and frequency of the asks increases over time.  A skilled scammer can be extraordinarily persuasive.

Social media platforms can be used maliciously to capture personal information.  A couple of the most popular are games and quizzes that look like harmless fun.  They’re look lighthearted and are designed to quickly engage the user.  Malicious questions are camouflaged to look harmless, such as “Where were you born?” or “Where did you go to high school?”.  Similar questions are often used in multi-factor authentication and criminals will collect your answers.  They gather a little information now, a bit more next month, another detail with a holiday game, etc.  Eventually they’ll stitch the pieces together into a usable profile for fraudulent purposes.

This fraud involves scammers who claim to be tech support or customer service reps at large companies such as Microsoft, Apple, the Geek Squad, etc.  Their aim is to steal your money, your personal details, and gain access to your computer or mobile device.  A potential victim receives an unexpected text, call, email, or browser pop-up claiming that your computer has been hacked or that an anti-virus program has expired.  Panic is created and the scammer offers to  ‘fix the problem’ by coaching the victim to install a “monitoring” program.  Actually, it’s a remote-access software program that allows the scammer complete access into your computer. If you suspect this has happened to you, disconnect your computer immediately and get it to a local computer repair shop.

Scammers contact consumers, claiming that gas, water, or electricity will be turned off immediately – often within the next hour – if a payment is not made immediately.  This message may be via text, email or by phone.  The scammer may direct you to a spoofed website to make payment or they may request that you use Cash App, Venmo, wire transfer or Bitcoin to pay them right away.  A valid utility company does not operate this way – by regulation they must give you adequate notice of disconnection procedures.  If in doubt, use the utility’s verified phone number to contact them.

A uniformed scammer may show up on your doorstep claiming to work for a utility company and stating that they need to enter your home to investigate a gas leak, do an energy audit, verify your water pressure or some such thing.  If you have not requested this service, do not let them in until you have used a verified phone number to call the utility in question.  Do NOT use a phone number supplied by the serviceperson and do not trust an ID card they may offer.  Such criminals want to see the layout of your home to plan a robbery or they may want physical access to your computer so they can install spyware on it.