A woman in France lost $850,000 in a deep fake scam involving images of Brad Pitt. Because scams are so frequent, you might be the next unexpected victim. Hosts Cristina and Addison learn about common scams and how to best avoid them with Cristin Blom from AFCU.
Cristina asks Question 1: What are the most popular scams right now?
Cristin: So we're seeing three different types of scams at this point. We see things that relate to AI. We see things that relate to imposter scams, like you mentioned with the deepfakes. And we see a variety of things with crypto.
Everybody wants to make a buck, right? And everybody thinks they’re going to get something by doing very little. So the better prepared our members are to stay safe online, the better—because right now, they are just falling for things left and right.
Like you mentioned, you got the text from the tolls, right? The problem with AI is that before, we saw a lot of scams where the English was poor, the spacing was off, and the grammar was bad. Now, everyone has access to ChatGPT, so it's less likely that people will notice grammar issues. Instead, it comes down to whether the message is expected. If you don't believe you have any tolls due, you should log in to your account and verify that, rather than clicking a suspicious link.
We also see a lot of members being phished. Phishing is when someone receives a text, an email, or even a phone call asking for personal information. That could be login credentials, usernames, or passwords. And they get tricked.
This happens because most people want to be helpful and want to resolve the issue. But they’re not being safe. No one should ever know your password but you. Giving out your credentials is never going to help anyone.
Cristina Follows Up: So putting my password under my keyboard is not a place that I should put my password?
Cristin: It would not be my preference. No, I would love for you to use a password manager so that we don't have passwords lying around.
Chances are you also use the same password across various websites. Let's please try to use custom passwords depending on the site. Because if that one password gets leaked, they can link it back to everything else you use.
Addison Asks Question 2: So when people are falling victim to these scams, what are the impacts of the loss of the money or information?
Cristin: Unfortunately, for so many of these members, that money is not going to be recovered.
The lady in France, I can't speak to her specific case, but I can assure you that Seminole County will not be tracking down $850,000 for this member.
Fraudsters know this is an easy crime to get away with because, in many cases, it's very difficult to detect or trace. Anyone can get a VPN, change their IP address, and use a voice changer so you wouldn't recognize the voice.
And quite frankly, a lot of times we even see their own family members victimizing them as well.
Cristina asks Question 3: So are there some simple tips on what not to do or how to protect us from being scammed?
Cristin: One of the main things to do is look at your bank statements, open your credit card statements, and log in online.
We all carry a smartphone with us most of the time, so it's very easy to go online and make sure everything there is accurate. If you see something that isn’t, contact your financial institution right away.
If you notice something on your credit report, and hopefully everyone is checking their credit report regularly, be sure to contact the credit bureaus.
Unless you're actively looking to take out a loan, you should probably go ahead and lock your credit so no one can apply for things in your name.
Cristina Follows Up: Oh, that's a great tip. And that's free.
Cristin: Easy safety right there. Plus, if your bank allows you to set up any sort of alerts for your transactions, please set them up. You should definitely know what's coming out, what's going in, and make sure that you are aware that somebody has potentially reset your password, things like that.
Cristina Asks Question 3: So, passwords I have to ask. So you're saying to have different passwords for everything?
Cristin: There are many different apps that allow you to log your passwords, like Passkey and others, that help you manage your passwords safely and keep them separate from other things.
We all love the convenience of saving our passwords in our browser. But if someone gains access to that browser, they also gain access to all of those sites.
If you misplace your laptop at work or at home, all someone has to do is open the browser, click on your Bank of America, Addition Financial, or Chase account, and they’re in.
The best practice is to use a different password for as many accounts as you can. Try to vary your usernames so they're not all the same.
Make sure you do not write down your email address and give it to everyone who asks.
We all hope we’re going to win that free cruise, but the reality is they’re probably just trying to data mine you. Once they have your email address, they also have access to the place where your password reset links are sent.
Cristina Follows Up: Oh my goodness Cristin. So what if you have like a junk email?
Cristin: Yes. Use the junk email for things that you don't care about. Do you really need that alert from Publix? Probably not right.
Addison Asks Question 4: There's a lot of information out there that could help someone verify if there's a scam, truly. Or if it's not. But what are some resources that our listeners could use to kind of like, help them be educated more on how to navigate if something is potentially a scam or not?
Cristin: Great question. On our website, we have a fraud resource page where our marketing team does a wonderful job of working with me or the manager of our fraud department to come up with different content ideas for our staff.
We produce a weekly newsletter that highlights the current scam of the week. This helps our staff stay informed so that when members call in or come into the branch, they are aware of what to look out for and can share that information with members.
The Better Business Bureau also has a great "Is This a Scam?" section. It walks you through what happened, using a short step-by-step tool to help determine if you may have been scammed or if the situation was legitimate. It also provides next steps.
The FTC has something similar. If you believe you’ve been scammed, it can help identify the type of scam and guide you through reporting it. This helps prevent others from becoming victims.
Any financial institution you use will also have resources available to help you with any issues related to your accounts.
I always recommend checking your credit report regularly. It’s so important. A lot of us are not actively shopping for a car or home, so we forget to look at it. But there are many scams happening where people use your Social Security number to apply for jobs, and then you could end up responsible for their taxes.
Always make sure you know what’s on your credit report and monitor your accounts closely. Report anything unusual as soon as you see it.
At a recent seminar, a girl told me she never told anyone she lost her wallet because she was embarrassed. As a result, someone stole thousands of dollars. So please, speak up and take action if something happens.
Cristina Follows Up: See, I had a feeling you probably have really, truly no idea how many people are actually getting scammed.
Cristin: No. Especially with the romance scams. The lady in France, she's a rare case. They don't normally come forward and say this happened to me because once they realize what happened, they feel very silly and quite frankly, hurt. You know, they had strong emotions for that person and then they were taken advantage of. So it's really unfortunate.
Cristina Asks Question 5: Okay. So you see a lot of scams. What's like the scam of the week. What's the hot scam that we need to be looking out for right now?
Cristin: Those text messages you mentioned are going to keep coming. All the scammers have to do is send out one big blast.
If you were not expecting the text message, don’t respond to it. Even if you were, it’s best not to use the links or phone numbers provided in the message or email. They are not going to be safe.
The easiest thing to do is look up the phone number the message should have come from. Ask yourself if it seems valid. You can also bypass all of that by logging directly into your E-Pass, SunPass, or whatever account the message is referencing. That way, you can check whether you actually have any unpaid tolls.
Is the IRS really trying to send you more money? Whatever the scam of the moment is, it's unfortunate that so many people are just trying to find a few extra dollars—and some of our members end up on the hook for all kinds of fees and debt because of it.
Then there are the potential legal fees. Some people end up in civil court trying to recover money that was stolen from them.
Cristina asks Question 6: I have to know. Has there been a lot of scams going through, like the instant pay? Like the Zelles and the Paypals and Venmo? Like, it's so easy for us to transfer money.
Cristin: I love the convenience of Zelle at home. I do not love anything about these quick service apps at work. As we deal with the cybersecurity of our online banking, these types of scams are becoming more and more prevalent because you'll get a message on Facebook that you've sold something on Marketplace. They want a deposit, or they say, oh, something's happened. I'm going to send you this verification code, and then you need to send me this money and then I'll send this back. There's so many things that once that money leaves your account, we are not able to get that back from Zelle, Cash App, whatever service you use. So it's very important that you know who you're sending that money to and you're sure that they are who they say they are. You should also never use those services to pay for goods and services. You should use that for things like I'm paying a friend back for coffee. If you use the option to use the goods and services, many of the fraudsters will just outright reject that because there's a little bit more protections available for them. So you'll also find that the fraudsters are dissuading you from using PayPal or things that they know have good refund policies.
Addison Follows Up: And I mean, this is a disclosure on those like before you send it says make sure you know the like they're trying to give you a warning and letting you know.
Cristina: And I know I use PayPal. Well they're like if you're sending it to a number that's not in your contacts, they'll stop you and say, please complete the phone number or please, like make sure, but it's cash. There's no not like a credit card that you do have. Like the ability to it's it it's gone. Like it's gone. Oh it makes me so nervous.
Cristin: And as we're getting ready to implement Zelle with our credit union. We are very excited about offering that to the members, but we have been working behind the scenes very tirelessly to survey other banks and see what other protections have been in place to see if we can kind of get ahead of the game before we start seeing that increase in fraud.
Cristina Asks Question 7: All right. So quick tips. What are like 2 or 3 quick tips that to tell everybody to help mitigate scams?
Cristin: Get a new email address for things like shopping, coupons, and similar offers. Don’t use the email address that’s important to you.
Also, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. No one is genuinely offering to pay $5,000 for an iPhone 7.
We have so many members who contact our call center or walk into our branch saying things like, “Someone offered to buy this from me for $1,500, and I just needed to send them these money orders back.” That money is gone.
Addison asks Question 8: So in the case that someone has been scammed, what is the first thing that they should do?
Cristin: If they're an online banking user? I would definitely suggest that they log into online banking and they change their password just in case. Make sure that password is not being used anywhere else. If you have a debit card or a credit card, it'd be a great idea to go ahead and lock that and immediately contact your financial institution to let them know you've recognized this charge, and it needs to be either disputed or it's outright fraud.
Cristina Asks Question 9: Would you recommend people using a credit card over a debit card for security reasons? Is there one way better than the other?
Cristin: Technology is getting better. We have chips in our cards, and now you can tap instead of inserting the chip or swiping the magnetic strip. That’s great and has helped in many ways.
But unfortunately, skimmers are still out there. Gas stations, or anywhere without a self-service option involving a real person, can be very risky places to use a debit card.
Remember, your debit card is linked to your checking account, which holds all of the money you have access to. Once someone gets into that account, it’s likely they won’t leave you anything behind.
Using a credit card helps keep your checking account safe, allows you to continue making purchases, and makes it easier to monitor and dispute any suspicious transactions.
Cristina Follows Up: Well, okay. When you're talking about the plastic card, I have it on my watch. So I just have to pay. Is tap to pay the safest, or is it chip, or is it a swipe? Like, is there a hierarchy of what's safer and what's not?
Cristin: Yes and no. Right? The tap is so convenient and wonderful. It also allows it so there is no physical record of your card. I'm sure you've noticed a lot of your cards no longer have an embossed number on them. That's so they can't be copied and things like that. So I love the tap to pay. It's very convenient. It helps with keep the card safe, because no data is being taken off of your magnetic strip, which your Pin number when you go to key that in would be logged at that time. A credit card if possible. Always try to use the tap if possible.
The hosts share a resource from Addition Financial’s blog, “Be Wary of These Five Debt Relief Scams.”