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Get the Peace of Mind You Need
Your financial information and accounts are safe and secure with Verve.
Learn how to protect your accounts by monitoring them regularly and knowing what to look out for. We’ve got tips and resources on how to identify fraud, how to report it, and how to prevent it.
Visit our blog for even more helpful tools and tips.
“Always” and “Never” Tips to Protect Yourself Against Any Scam
ALWAYS:
Use free banking tools to help you protect yourself.
These can range from setting up login and other account alerts, to setting up a code word on your account. The code word is a secret word or phrase that only you and your credit union know or have a record of; and if you don’t know it, you’re not getting access to your funds. Be sure you have it written down in a super-secret place so nobody else can gain access to your account unknowingly.
Double-check info you are receiving from a potential scammer.
Think your family is in danger overseas? Being held for ransom? Or your priest is asking you for some gift cards to help the homeless? Whatever it is, put on your private investigator hat and reach out to known contact information (phone call is best) to ask if it’s true. Be sure to carefully look at the email address from suspicious emails. Scammers are exceptionally good at inserting the name of someone in your contact list into the “name” section of the email. But if you look closely, you you may find that it doesn’t have the correct email address of your contact. Sneaky scammers!
Use the power of credit reporting agencies to help you.
If you have credit cards, then you should already be checking your credit and credit score regularly (annually at the very least) using one of the big three credit reporting companies (Experian, Equifax or TransUnion). In fact, the government makes it easy for you to do this by allowing each person one free credit report every year. Each of these companies provide consumers with flexible ways to protect themselves against fraud by allowing you to freeze your credit cards when not in use. When frozen, scammers can’t get access to your cards, and you will be notified if someone tries.
Educate your entire family (and extended family) about scams.
Don’t assume that your kids are being taught about scams in school, or that grandma and grandpa know what they should and shouldn’t do. The FTC reported that more than $2.3 billion of losses in 2021 were due to imposter scams—up from $1.2 billion in 2020. Grandma and grandpa may be more susceptible to scams involving fake family members (and even computer repair scams!) So help them understand what they should do if something smells fishy.
NEVER:
Never give your banking information up via email, text, or phone to someone you don’t know.
Important banking information includes account numbers, PIN numbers, passwords and pass phrases. If you feel compelled to give money to someone (who potentially could be a scammer), call us at Verve. We can help you verify the request and help you send money if it is warranted.
Never keep your purse, wallet, or other financial documents in an unlocked car.
That’s why 9% of all break-ins originate in the garage. Keep all garage access doors locked and deadbolted but still bring purses and wallets inside for extra protection.
Never pay by unusual methods.
If someone asks you to pay by gift cards or bitcoin, all sorts of sirens should begin going off in your head! Gift cards? Really? Never. Reserve gift cards for holidays, birthdays and other gifts, but never for payments of any other kind. Large companies and government agencies would never request this kind of payment from you. Additionally, never use person-to-person apps to pay people you don’t know and trust. Cybercriminals are very skilled at hacking into social media networks and may be posing as a friend or connection to swindle you out of your money.
Four Ways to Know if it’s a Scam
The Four “Ps” in Every Scam:
Pretense
To get close to you and have any credibility with their call, email, text or message request, scammers have to pretend to be someone you know. This can be a friend, a business you patronize, or even a government entity.
Problem or Prize
Scammers like to present victims with problems that need to be solved or the promise of a prize. Scam themes run the gamut from “you have family stuck overseas” to “you haven’t paid your taxes” to you simply “you have a virus on your computer.” Or, scammers may falsely claim you’ve won something or have a refund coming. Either way, these things make the perfect set-up to have you on the hook for what comes next—pressure.
Pressure
Your friends and even companies you do business with would never pressure you to make a decision or act on something they’re asking you for. But scammers sure will! They may even go so far as to ask you to stay on a call, threaten you, or threaten to call the police or other government agency.
Payment
Let’s face it. Scammers and fraudsters are only out for one thing: your money. Oftentimes this request will come in the form of asking for gift cards or a wire transfer, or receiving an advance check from the scammer (remember, if it’s too good to be true…well, you know the rest!).
Five Ways to Protect Yourself:
Block them
There are ways to block unwanted callers and even text messages from your smartphone. Additionally, you can always get put on the “Do not Call” list. If you receive a call from a phone number you don’t recognize or doesn’t come up in your contacts, simply don’t answer it. If it’s someone you know or need to conduct business with, they will certainly leave you a voicemail about what they need.
Delete them
If you receive an unsolicited, seems-like-it’s-a-scam text or email, immediately delete them. Do not click on anything in either a text or email. In some cases, you can right click on an email and scroll down to “security” and report the email as phishing or junk mail, and even block the sender from sending anything in the future (it’s a great way to keep your inbox a bit tidier, too!).
Ignore them
If a scammer happens to get through to you by phone or email, never ever engage with someone who fits the four “Ps”. And by all means, do NOT give them any financial information or payments. This information is your private business and has no business being discussed in email or texts.
Resist them
The pressure mentioned above can lead you to irrational thinking. If you don’t know what to do, hit the “pause” button. Either hang up or ask someone in your household (or a close friend first!) whether or not you should do what’s being asked of you.
Report them
While scams happen a lot, that doesn’t mean you just have to live with them. Help us and the whole world fight fraud together by playing an active role in reporting fraudulent activity to the Federal Trade Commission at http://reportfraud.ftc.gov/.
