Many consumers are entering the New Year dealing with holiday hangovers, thanks to a flurry of scams and banking-related fraud.
Cyber crooks targeted checking accounts and bank accounts during the year-end rush in some cases by impersonating the so-called fraud department from banks and credit unions. Scammers hope to catch you off guard. Then, they weave a story on how quick action is needed to prevent crooks who had already supposedly hacked into your bank account, maybe by making a Zelle transfer, from draining out even more money.
“The scammers are perfecting their scripts,” said Mark Fetterhoff, senior advisor for the AARP Fraud Watch Network.
More and more, sophisticated phishing attempts ultimately try to trick consumers into using person-to-person payment apps to transfer money to the crooks. The apps include Cash App, PayPal, Venmo and Zelle.
In 2021, the Federal Trade Commission received nearly 70,000 complaints from consumers who sent money to fraudsters via payment apps or similar services totaling $130 million in losses, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which trying to address payment fraud. Consumers can submit complaints at www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint.
I wrote about several types of scams in 2022, including how con artists impersonated a DTE Energy representative and drained $1,324.85 from the bank account of a Rochester Hills woman via a Zelle app and how con artists will impersonate Amazon to claim there’s fraudulent activity with…
