Be Aware of Phone Scams Trying to Steal Your Bank Information

Unless you are living under a rock you know that fraud is a reality in our world today.  It could be people trying to steal your income tax return or the friendly Nigerian who wants to hand you millions.  Recently a friend of mine who lives in the UK told me about how people have even started trying to steal your bank information over the phone.  Clydesdale Bank, where he has his car loan, recently put out a warning on their website to try and protect its customers.

No one wants to be a victim of fraud.  In order to protect yourself you need to be careful with who you give your information to.  If you receive a phone call and they do any of the following you should be a little suspicious.

• They will cold call you acting as management from your bank.  They will try and tell you that your account has been receiving suspicious activity.
• They could start out by having you provide basic information like your address or date of birth.
• If you start acting suspicious they will tell you that you should hang up and call the bank back yourself to make sure the issue is resolved promptly.
• You will then proceed to hang up and call the number on the back of your bank card.
• You may or may not notice a dial tone on the line.
• The person who answers will ask you for all of your cards information including the PIN number, security code, and possibly even your online banking username and password.
• They might keep asking you these questions multiple times.
• Call could last 2 or 3 hours because that gives the thieves plenty of time to make multiple transactions to your account.

The fraud takes place when you hang up to call your bank back.  The thieves are still on the line and will act as officers of the bank.  They will take your personal information and use it to rack up charges to your account while you are talking to them.

Make sure you don’t fall victim to one of theses phone scams by making yourself aware of what to look out for.  Banks will never ask you for your pin number.  The best advice to help protect yourself if you receive a call warning you about fraud is to call your bank from a different phone.  By doing this you should be able to avoid problems.