Spotting Scams

In today’s fast-paced and constantly changing world, more and more usually savvy consumers find themselves falling victim to scams. Even the most informed members can be caught off guard or misled by sophisticated scams that can unfortunately result in thousands in lost funds.

Most scam attempts occur over the phone or via the internet.
Here’s a list of some common scam identifiers:

1. Scammers pretend to be from a trusted organization you know. Some known scams impersonate the IRS, FTC, FBI, Social Security Administration, Medicare, Amazon or a utility company. These organizations will never ask for personal or banking information (such as your SSN or account number) over the phone.
2. Scammers pressure you with a problem. They may claim you are in trouble with a government agency, that you owe money to a trusted organization/company, that someone in your family had an emergency, that there’s a virus on your computer, or that there is a problem with one of your accounts. Resist the pressure to act immediately. Honest businesses will give you time to make important decisions.
3. Scammers tell you to pay in specific or strange ways. They often insist that you can only pay using gift cards, crypto-currency, or wire transfer. Honest businesses will not request these payment methods, as they are often untraceable.

Additional Tips

Be careful when attempting to contact support.

• When you need to contact a large company like Amazon or Walmart, or a utility company like Spectrum or NYSEG, do not use Google to search for their phone number.
• Instead, go directly to the company’s main website (like amazon dot com) and scroll to the bottom of the page.
• Legitimate websites of reputable companies (like us) will have their contact and support links listed there.
• Scammers can manipulate search results which can cause confusion and lead to accidentally contact a scam company representing themselves as support for a company like Amazon.

If you believe you’re talking to support for a large company and they display any of the identifiers we listed in this article…

Hang up the phone immediately!

If the same number of different unknown numbers attempt to call back do NOT answer.

Thank you for reading. We hope you found this article helpful. Feel free to share it with anyone you think could benefit from these tips. If you’re interested, we have additional resources and literature available at the credit union. Stay tuned for more!