09.30.26 Financial Scam Prevention / Travel Updates
The Clark Howard Podcast
Clark Howard warns listeners about increasingly sophisticated financial scams involving bank impersonation and workplace gift card fraud. Th
Key takeaways
- Criminals use spoofed caller IDs, such as Charles Schwab, to trick victims into providing two-factor authentication codes.
- A listener lost $8,600 after an email impersonating her boss requested the purchase of employee appreciation gift cards.
Main topics
- Bank Imposter Scams
- Workplace Gift Card Fraud
Notable quotes
You do not engage with that individual contacting you.
Conclusion
Vigilance against unsolicited communications and flexibility in travel
Transcript preview
Speaker 2 (0:04) It's my pleasure to welcome you here to the Clark Howard Show. You know, our mission is to serve you with advice and information that empowers you to make better financial decisions in your life. And when you're trying to make a financial decision, I hope you'll take advantage of our free tools at Clark.com. We have a streaming tool to help you find the cheapest service that gives you the channels you want. a cell phone plan finder tool that will save you a fortune, and a credit card finder tool. Because most people pick credit cards based on who's soliciting you. It's better you decide what card is truly the best for your situation, your wallet. And I'm so proud of the team we have at Clark.com that so deeply researches. topics and writes information to let you make the best informed decision you can in your life. We are unbought and unbossed. In fact, I'd say the boss we have is you. Today, I'm going to begin with a scary, scary warning about a woman who had her entire life savings drained in just minutes. And then later on a happier note, I want to talk about travel opportunities that are out there that you need to know about. So let's go to just a terribly sad story that's being washed, rinsed, repeat over and over and over again. People are now using technology to con people into thinking there's a problem with their accounts when there's not. Scamming people. There was a story that an ABC television affiliate did in the San Francisco Bay Area about a Bay Area woman who lost all her life savings that she had invested with Charles Schwab. And how did it happen? This story we're hearing different wrinkles of over and over again involving banks, credit unions, and brokerages, where someone gets notified by security at the bank or brokerage or credit union that there has been a... data leak, security leak about their account or there's activity on their account. The MO changes a little bit, but the core of it is where you're being notified by a bank or brokerage or credit union employee that there's a problem with a thief trying to get at your money. And what they're doing is they're actually predicting the future because they are the thief. They are the thief. Here's the thing. You are protected from theft of funds from your account at a bank or credit union. It's a little fuzzier with the brokerages, the investment community. But most organizations, if just out of the blue, you're not even aware of it, somebody comes in and is able to hack into your account and steal your money. Then, in theory, you are to be protected, again, under the law. with banks and credit unions, and under company policy usually published with the various financial houses, the brokerages, even though the law doesn't clearly require it. But this is the gray area where there is no protection, and it's where someone impersonates the financial institution. The caller ID on your phone will pop up as... Charles Schwab, in the case of this story that the ABC affiliate did, with whatever organization you bank with, credit union with, invest with, the caller ID will look like it's from there. You may even see a spoof text coming from a known number at a financial institution. The thing is, the criminals are so practiced at creating a sense of urgency. Your money's at risk right now. We need you to take these steps. And so often what they are is from prior breaches that have happened. You know, we get these notices of various breaches from time to time of all different organizations, credit bureaus, whoever else. The thieves already know so much about you. And so they impersonate the financial institution, tell you about the threat. They already know your accounts. Then they tell you they're going to send you a code, and you just need to give them that code. All they need in many cases is that two-factor authentication code. And then before you even realize what's happened, they have swept the money out. of your account, wherever it is. So here's the thing. The financial institutions say, because you were a participant in it, the fraud protections don't apply. Know this. When you are contacted out of the blue by somebody claiming to be with the fraud department of any financial institution, say, thank you so much for the alert, and you hang up the phone. Period. You do not engage with that individual contacting you. However they contact you, text, email, phone call, social media, whatever, do not engage with them. If you get an alert like that, you go online, sign into your account, look at the number to contact, make sure you're contacting the right number for the fraud department at that institution, and you will find out. virtually 100 % of the time, there's nothing wrong with your account. that this was just a criminal trying to engage in account takeover fraud, period. And at that point, you need to put defenses into place. You change your username and password for whatever that institution is, and you need to do a sweep of your various accounts and think through, which ones am I using common username and password for? You should change those as well. Remember, the criminal's already been busy. backgrounding you. They didn't just pop up out of the blue. They've done their homework. You need to know that this was just the first attempt to get at your money, and you need to take the steps forward to protect yourself. But the most important thing, never engage with somebody calling you supposedly from the fraud department of any institution you do business with, even if caller ID says they're from that institution. Period. Speaker 1 (7:28) Okay. This is a tough one. Olivia in Kentucky says, I'm 22 years old and started my first job at a small company. Three weeks into my job, I received an email from someone impersonating the owner requesting my cell in case she needed me to run some errands. She said she might text from the second cell when she asked for something. The next day I was off and I received a text from someone impersonating the owner asking if I had time to run errands. Then she stated she needed me to pick up some gift cards for some employee appreciation. I used my mom's credit card that I'm authorized on, thinking