Scammers use vishing (voice/call phishing) phone calls to impersonate your bank or other financial services companies. They claim they are calling to assist you with an unauthorized transaction to create urgency and ask for sensitive account information and gain access to your online banking in order to complete money transfers.

Red Flags

• You receive an email or text message regarding money movement or a debit authorization that you do not recognize immediately followed by a phone call

• The text message claiming to be from financial services comes from an ordinary 9-digit phone number rather than the customary 5 or 6 digit Short Code number

• The caller states that there is a suspicious debit card authorization or money transfer pending, such as Zelle®

• They request your online banking user ID and/or password

• You cannot access online banking to view the alleged charges because you are locked out

• They ask you to read back a verification code sent to you via email, text or voice call “to authenticate” you

• They place you on hold frequently and for extended periods

• The phone connection is poor, staticky or may drop in and out

• They ask you to initiate test or dummy payments to yourself or a name you do not recognize that are allegedly required to create an account link or test system functionality

What Can You Do

• Without exception, never give anyone your online account password(s).

• Read text messages carefully. If a text states it should not be provided to anyone, or that the sender would never ask for it; do not provide it to anyone, no matter how persuasive they may be.

• When receiving a call, do not discuss sensitive financial or account information with someone you have not had previous personal experience with and do not know by name.

• If you receive a call regarding an alleged fraud or other account related activity, get the individual’s name and hang up the phone. An employee of a legitimate company will not object to you calling back at a number you are comfortable with. Contact that company directly using a phone number you know is legitimate; retrieved directly from their website or an official company document, such as a paper billing statement.

• When returning the call, do not use any phone numbers provided to you during the call, or from any emails or texts you may have received, do not use numbers provided by internet search engines, and do not rely on the Caller ID information on your phone; these can be spoofed or faked.