Sneaky scammers drain bank account in sinister phone phishing scheme

We often receive text alerts from our banks about potential fraudulent transactions. 

While these notifications are meant to protect us, they can sometimes be exploited by savvy thieves. 

Here’s a real-life example shared by Kevin from Dandridge, Tennessee, who wanted to let others know about these sneaky tactics so that they could protect themselves against these heartless scammers.

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The incident

Kevin shared a troubling experience where his wife received a text from their debit card bank questioning a potential fraudulent charge. This wasn’t unusual, as they had received similar notifications before and had to replace their cards. She responded with “NO,” indicating that the transaction wasn’t theirs.

Shortly after, she received a phone call from what she thought was the bank. However, the call was from the thieves, who cleverly posed as bank representatives. They didn’t ask for account numbers or passwords but instead requested the answer to a “secret question” that was legitimately set up when the account was created.

Once the thieves had this information, they shut off notifications, transferred funds between accounts, set up an ACH transfer and withdrew most of the funds. Fortunately, Kevin’s wife checked their accounts daily and quickly noticed the suspicious activity.

They filed a report with the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) and a local police report. The IC3 is a partnership between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center, providing a way for individuals to report cyber crimes, including online fraud and identity theft. The bank’s fraud department was able to retrieve the funds from the receiving bank. However, the experience was time-consuming and stressful.

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A woman receiving text messages on her cellphone. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

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Why scammers specifically ask for secret questions

Scammers often ask for the answers to secret questions because these answers can provide them with a crucial piece of information needed to access your accounts. Secret questions are typically used as an additional layer of security for account recovery or verification processes. By obtaining this information,…