Phone bank fraud is rising. How to protect yourself from it.
Do you get notifications, suspicious texts and calls about your bank account, about charges on your account ?
Bank frauds have rised and scammers are using ways to trick you into giving your information.
According to global news, this year as of Sept. 30, there has been 2,769 reports of phone calls from fraudsters claiming to be from a financial institution. The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) reported that, that number is up from 2,212 reports in 2021 and 1,147 the year before.
Text spamming has increased and is a common method which people are getting scammed. You can probably relate to this, because many people including yourself or people you know may have gotten many of these text messages from fraudsters. The text messages appear to be authentic, which is why many people fall victim to clicking it.
How can you identify a scam ?
At times it can be hard to tell the difference bewteen a scam call vs a real bank call, there are some things you can look out for.
Scam callers may use caller id spoofing to display the number of a bank, they usually make it as automated voice message. But sometimes they try to have a conversation with you to get information. There has been situation where a scammer might tell you to dial some numbers, than a phone number to direct all your incoming calls to them.
According to the global news. Banks will never ask you you to confirm your account number, PIN, password, social insurance number or any other personal information via text, phone call or email. They will only ask you information to verify you, when you call them.
Spear phishing scams means that the scammer pretends to be the actual representative (bank) asking for money to be sent to them. Financial institutions will never ask you to send money to a external account.
What do those fraudsters want ?
They are many things they can be trying to take from you. Your personal information, like name, address. You card information, and mainly your money.
How to protect yourself from fraud ?
- Try to limit providing your personal information over the phone and money.
2. Find out who is calling you, from what number and you can check that number by calling them back.
3. Stop clicking on suspicious links.
If you fall victim to these frauds, you should let the police know and inform your bank.