The Financial Journey is a unique series focused on financial education and opportunities. These stories have been created through a strategic partnership between Wells Fargo and Word In Black.
Imagine receiving a phone call. The voice on the line is an IRS representative stating that you owe taxes. This matter has to be resolved by a wire transfer to prevent a penalty. You acknowledge that, throughout the years, you have not been the best at record keeping. You prepare to send a wire, unaware that the phone call is fraudulent. In 2022, consumers reported $2.6 billion in losses due to imposter scams, according to Federal Trade Commission data. Dan Cusick, Senior Vice President of Fraud Prevention at Wells Fargo, shares some ways to stay protected from fraud:
WIB: How long have you been in the industry?
Cusick: 27 years.
WIB: “Imposter scam.” What is that exactly?
Cusick: A bad actor pretending to be somebody they’re not. Typically, they are suggesting that they represent either the bank, a company, such as the utility company, or even a government agency.
WIB: Is there one particular “old” scam that keeps making its rounds?
Cusick: We see checks being stolen out of the mail and altered. We continue to see solicitation scams – whether it be soliciting future employees to work from home or soliciting for merchandise and, perhaps, overpaying for that merchandise and asking customers to send back the difference. Those are traditional scams that have been around for quite some time.
WIB: There are also wires. People find them convenient.
Cusick: We see wire payments associated with things like imposter scams for a few foundational reasons: It’s almost immediate availability. Limits may be higher for wires because you use wires to pay for mortgages, down payments and those sorts of things. The ability to get that money back is really difficult. For those reasons, that’s a payment of choice for the bad actors. It allows them to remain anonymous without having to transact in a branch or be on film at an ATM.
WIB: Have you found that other forms of technology are influencing scamming at this time?
Cusick: Ten to fifteen years ago, when folks were soliciting people for overpayment scams or work from home scams, a lot of times, that was done through a fax machine. The bad actors would send them out to 100 different fax machines, and if they landed one of them, that was a good day. Now, with phishing, the bad actor could send out 100,000 phish texts or emails with a keystroke and just wait on what comes back.
WIB: What are some tips to avoid scams?
Cusick: Trust and verify. When customers see caller ID and it says it’s the IRS or Wells Fargo or another bank, we have found that that trust factor for customers is through the roof. We should be very cautious. If you start feeling rushed or the person on the other line is being demanding, suggesting you move money, suggesting you reveal passwords and codes, hang up right away. Call the bank back or a small group of friends, coworkers – people you trust. Run the situation by them. Although we have 24/7 monitoring, it becomes increasingly difficult for any bank to protect customers if they reveal their information. Banks help each other with these trends, so a lot of these tips are best practices. Wells Fargo will never initiate a call and ask you for a one-time password code, but another bank could have a different stance on that.
There’s a lot of literature out there.
For more information about fraud prevention in banking and other areas of your life, read here and here.
Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. is a member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
