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Financial Literacy Awareness Month: Protect Your Money!
An important part of financial literacy is knowing how to keep your finances safe and secure. Scammers have sophisticated methods for convincing consumers to hand over their money. These scams usually involve someone claiming to identify fraud or suspicious activity on one of your accounts, offering to help “protect” your money, asking you to share verification codes, and telling you to move money from your bank, investment, or retirement account.
What does a scam look like?
Scammers use all sorts of strategies to scare consumers into following their instructions.
· Computer popups (often using familiar branding, like Windows) that offer free security scans or say your device has been compromised.
· A phone call or text message from “Amazon” that says there has been a suspicious charge to your account and you need to take action.
· Someone (usually claiming to be from your bank or the government) tells you your money will be more secure if you deposit it in a Bitcoin ATM.
What do these strategies have in common?
· They are elaborate and convincing lies. The scammer wants to scare you into acting quickly before you have time to think about what they’re asking you to do.
· Scammers will try to convince you to keep it a secret. They may tell you that telling anyone – including your bank or even your family – puts you at risk, and may have you sign a fake NDA.
· The scammer’s end goal is to convince you to give them your savings.
Never move your money to “protect it.” That’s a scam.
Moving it means you’ll lose it – any stranger who says you have to move your money to keep it safe is a scammer.
· Never share a verification code. Financial institutions use these codes to prove you’re really you. If you share that code, a scammer can use it to impersonate you.
· Always pause and investigate. Call your real bank, broker, or investment advisor to ask questions using an official number you can independently verify.
Will your bank or investment fund stop a transfer to a scammer? Probably not.
We expect banks and brokers to keep our money safe and warn us about suspicious transfers out of our accounts. Scammers exploit that trust. The truth is that when money gets stolen, banks and brokers usually won’t be able get it back from the scammer.
· If you are scammed into moving money out of your account, you may not be protected if it turns out to be a scam.
· If you transfer your life savings into someone’s cryptocurrency wallet, it is nearly impossible to get it back.
· If you liquidate your retirement account and give the cash to someone else, the bank will not reverse the transaction if the money has been withdrawn. That money is gone.
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