Avoid These Popular Scams - Part 4

Video Transcript

Hey my name is Chris with Money Burst, and welcome back to our series on fraud. Where my goal is to help you keep your money safe.

This is the fourth and final video in our series, and so far, we've covered scams like phone spoofing, phishing and fake emails. So, for this video I wanted to focus on debit card scams.

One popular version of this scam works like this: a scammer will reach out to you on social media. Maybe it's over on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, and then they'll say something like this: Hey, I'm really sorry to bother you, but I run this small business and I'm just trying to make ends meet. You know things are tough right now and I have this client, they're out in your area and they want to pay me but they said they can only send my payment to a local bank account. I'm not able to get to your area in time, and we're in danger of losing this client that we really really need. If you would just let me use your account I'll leave some money in there just as a thank you for letting me inconvenience you. All I need to get started is just your debit card number and pin number, or maybe your online bank username and password.

If you agree to do this, the scammer is first going to start by depositing fake checks into your account. They might do this at an ATM, or even just initiate a remote deposit. They're then going to go out and make withdrawals, add another ATM, or just go and purchase some prepaid cards from a company like Visa or Green Dot. And then they can later convert those back into cash.

And then you, the victim of this situation, are going to be left responsible for all of the losses as these checks will inevitably bounce, or the transfers get returned back, and there really isn't much you can do since you participated in this scam by giving away your debit card or account information.

Your number one rule should be to never, and I mean ever under any circumstance, give anyone access to your account information. There are far too many people out there looking to take advantage of your kindness. No matter how convincing the story is, or how desperate a person may sound, just ignore them. Because when you willingly give up your information, there really isn't much that anyone can do to protect you and your accounts.

So, make sure you are all staying safe out there, and please be on guard because these scammers are getting very good. And they can be very convincing with these stories they come up with.