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Yesterday a family member got scammed out of banking information in a COVID-19 related scam. These scams are rampant right now. I think it is worth warning fami
by antoncohen 7y ago
Yesterday a family member got scammed out of banking information in a COVID-19 related scam. These scams are rampant right now. I think it is worth warning family and friends that might be unaware.
Banks sometimes make it hard to do the right thing. Last year my bank called me, I didn't answer the unknown number and they left a message. The message had a phone number to call and a case number. I'm not going to call a number someone gives me, so I called the main number and asked to be transferred. After a few transfers to the wrong people, it eventually became clear they couldn't transfer me to this particular fraud department.
I physically went into a bank branch. A very nice banker there tried to call them for me, spent 20 minutes on hold and being transferred around. They were able to confirm the call was real, and what it was about. But the final conclusion was, there was no possible way to reach the person in this fraud department, they had to call me. We arranged a 1 hour window where they would call me and I'd be sure to answer the phone.
- antoncohen 7y agoI'm going to correct myself. My family member didn't get scammed! There is a government agency cold emailing people, telling them to fill out a form that that asks for Bank Name, Account Number, and Routing Number. https://imgur.com/a/5loIfnW https://imgur.com/a/5loIfnW Way to teach people to be safe. At the same time the IRS is telling people to avoid scams by not clicking links in emails: https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-issues-warning-about-coronavirus-related-scams-watch-out-for-schemes-tied-to-economic-impact-payments https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-issues-warning-about-corona...
- TylerE 7y agoThe banking system (checking in particular) is hopelessly dumb, but that information is printed on every check. It isn't top secret.
- antoncohen 7y agoTrue. The form also asks for SSN, DOB, address, phone number, etc.
- projektfu 7y ago> https://imgur.com/a/5loIfnW https://imgur.com/a/5loIfnW That looks super shady.
- npsomaratna 7y agoGenuine question here: since the domain name is *.sba.gov, wouldn't that be enough to consider this legitimate?
- notechback 7y agoI don't know the specifics here but many official sites also can have compromised parts, e.g. a subdomain with an old wordpress install or similar can get taken over.
- projektfu 7y agoProbably but I’d still prefer a link to a www.sba.gov page that links to this form.
- prawn 7y agoA friend’s mother got scammed because she’d arranged for her ISP support to contact her that afternoon and then an Indian IT scammer happened to call just before...
- nubbins 7y agoThat's so frustrating, as a bank they are making it harder to avoid fraud by training people to trust them. I was in the same position where someone tried to hack me but I will never give out information to a incoming caller, so I asked for their fraud number and googled it. I figure if it comes up on somewhere on their website its legit, if not I won't trust it.
- mycall 7y agotypo website, especially in the age of unicode domain names, can be tricky to catch.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]