It’s four o’clock on a Sunday afternoon and Alex is enjoying some TV when an emergency broadcast interrupts the down time. Breaking news, the news anchor delivers shocking information with considerate urgency. Eyewitnesses have spotted large chunks falling from great heights at remarkable speed. The sky, it would appear, is falling. There isn’t much time, so the safest thing to do is to leave home and drive out of range. But that’s absurd, no one would seriously believe the sky is falling, right?
Alex steps out of their home, terrified of being crushed by a chunk of falling sky. They take a cautious step forward and nothing happens. In fact, it’s rather nice out. The front door locks behind them. This isn’t good, Alex is locked out of their own house by the people they put their trust in.
The sky was never falling, of course it wasn’t. The real danger was the voice behind the megaphone: Bank imposter scams. These utilize authority figures to trick us into acting impulsively. Humans are predisposed to obey authority, stemming from an evolutionary need to build societies, make decisions and survive. While we have the ability to disobey authority, it’s less stressful to go along with the flow, especially when we have something to gain, such as obeying a bank employee who claims to be helping us save our money.
Not to mention, any decision becomes more psychologically difficult when compounded by scarcity. Research has found that when faced with scarcity, our brains become so consumed with survival that our cognitive skills decline; we literally have less brain power and make worse decisions.
Fortunately, there are people out there trying to fight them. Hi, I’m Eva Velasquez, I have been fighting scams for decades. Let me walk you through what a bank imposter scam actually looks and feels like.
All of the sudden, your phone rings. Caller ID says name of your bank and they tell you we’ve detected fraud on your account and your heart is absolutely racing. You need to react right away. Generally, you’re going to be asked for an awful lot of information: I need your name, I need your date of birth, I need your mother’s maiden name. They’re going to keep asking you for as much data as you’re willing to provide. As soon as you send that information, you no longer have access to that account and your money is gone and the scammer has now ghosted you.
There are a few ways that you can protect yourself from bank imposter scams: please go directly to the source, verify with your bank, call the known number for your bank, log in on a different device to your online account and get in touch with your bank. Ask for advice from someone you trust. There are plenty of resources out there brought to you by Zell who’d like to remind you to only send money to those you know and trust.