Written by: Chad Tramp
On Sunday afternoon, I received a text message from my bank, US Bank, asking if I had made a $3,300 charge on my debit card, respond Yes or No. I had not made a $3,300 charge, so I replied No to the text message. I promptly received a call from what appeared to be my bank’s 800 # on the back of my debit card. The caller indicated he was from the US Bank’s fraud team and was calling to resolve the fraudulent charge on my account. He provided me with his name and employee ID.
As the call continued the caller asked for the last 4 digits of my SSN to confirm my identity, which I provided. He then asked me to provide the 6-digit code that would come from my bank, which I provided him with as well. The text message I received appeared to be from US Bank.
The caller then confirmed to me the last couple of transactions from my checking account, which were correct.
Over the next hour, this person “worked with me to resolve” the fraudulent charge, he provided me with a case # and continued to “work” on other charges he said were now appearing in my account. I logged into my bank account online, I couldn’t see the original $3,300 charge that he claimed existed, but now I could see a $2,450 Zelle money request (deposit). The caller insisted there was a $2,450 deposit happening in my account in the background, that I couldn’t see, but that I need to “ok” a payment to reverse the $2,450 deposit request. I did not.
He said there were additional fraudulent charges pending from the PayPal account I had linked to my checking account. He wanted me to login to PayPal, create a reverse transaction to correct these charges.
When I told him this didn’t seem right, he pushed back that he was with my bank’s fraud team and if I didn’t take care of this right a way the charges would go through, and I’d have to file appeal claims on each charge which could take 4-5 months to resolve. He was there to help resolve these charges today (Sunday evening) to prevent my funds being tied up for an extended period.
At this point I became very suspicious and that I was possibly being scammed, the guy was being too pushy to “resolve” this matter. I hung up. The fraudster attempted to call me back 3 times and tried multiple calls to my husband’s phone. We ignored these calls. We then tried to call the number on the back of my card, and since it was Sunday, they were closed. I then went online to my bank’s website, and found the true fraud department phone number.
When I reached the fraud department at my bank, they too asked for the 6-digit code that they had texted me, but the difference was that I had initiated the call to them, not the other way around. My bank could then determine that the fraudster had logged into my bank account and was attempting to transfer money out via a third-party vendor, i.e., Zelle, Venmo, Pay Pal. The fraudster also removed my primary phone number from my profile so future notifications would not come to my phone. My bank put an immediate freeze on my checking account and my debit cards.
On Monday morning, I went to my bank’s branch location, had to close my current bank account, destroy our debit cards and open a new account and reestablish all of the auto withdrawals that I had originally set up.
This was a sophisticated fraud attempt. In one sense they were very patient as I was on the phone with the fraudsters for over an hour when they were supposedly trying to fix things (but they were really trying to get money out of me). In another sense they were very much pushing me along and trying to force me to make quick decisions.
Lessons to be learned—
- If you ever get a call like this, hang up and call the respective organization back on a phone number that you believe to be legit—many times numbers are on the back of your debit and credit cards,
- If the person on the other line appears to be in a hurry and is pushing you to do things quickly, be very suspicious.
- Don’t give the code that was texted to you to anyone else unless YOU initiate the call to the bank/credit card company.
- Many times these fraud attempts happen at night, over the weekend or over Holidays when it is more difficult to get an actual person at the bank to talk with.
This material is provided for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as legal, cybersecurity, or financial advice. Fraud tactics and scams continually evolve, and no security procedure or fraud prevention measure can guarantee protection against unauthorized activity or financial loss. Individuals should independently verify communications claiming to be from financial institutions and contact organizations directly using verified contact information if suspicious activity is suspected.
