The Anne Arundel County Maryland Police Department has issued a warning about scammers posing as bank fraud department employees calling their targeted victims and using psychology skills that Freud would have envied convince their victims that their debit card or bank account has been attempted to be accessed by criminals and that in order to protect their money they must go the bank immediately and withdraw their entire account in cash and give it to a rideshare driver who will come to their home to pick up the cash and deposit it into a safe account for the victim.

The call appears legitimate because the scam victim’s Caller ID indicates that the call is coming from their bank, however, it is a simple matter for a scammer to “spoof” the phone number of the bank and manipulate the scam victim’s Caller ID to make the call appear legitimate.

TIPS

Whenever you get a phone call, text message or email asking you for personal information, to make a payment or withdraw funds you can never be sure who is actually calling you.  B.S.  Be skeptical.  If you have any thought that the communication might be legitimate, call the bank at a phone number you know to be accurate where you can confirm that the call is a scam.

No bank will ever ask you to withdraw your money and turn it over to someone to protect it.  No bank will ever ask you to cash in your bank account and give it to anyone.  In other variations of this scam, victims are instructed to take their cash to a cryptocurrency ATM and deposit it into a safe account provided by the scammer.  This too is always a scam.

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