Special to the Tribune Thanks to the keen eyes and quick-thinking by em-ployees
of Citizens Bank of Kansas, two customers of the bank were saved tens of thousands of dollars in a recurring scam.
The fraudulent activity started with a telephone call purportedly from an established company, in these cases Microsoft and PayPal. The caller claimed that an error had been made to the respective accounts and the overpayment needed to be wired back to the company. The fraudsters used persuasive tactics to lure the victims into the scheme, including concerns that the caller would “lose their jobs” or the victims would be “in big trouble” if the money was not returned. Once convinced, the victims were instructed to go to the bank and wire money.
“The fraudsters knew the bank would ask questions about such sizeable wire requests and they provided a story for the victims to tell the bank: in each case, the bank was told the wires were for a sibling to purchase a house overseas,” said Bobbi Jo Dixon, Vice President of Compliance for CBK. “The victims were directed to allow the caller to listen into the conversation with the bank via their cell phones, giving text instructions when the bank asked too many questions,” Dixon said. After the scams were stopped, it was later learned that both victims’ online banking account information had been compromised.
According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Americans lost $5.8 billion to phishing…
