Beware of Imposter Scams-Here's What to Look For | Guiding You Forward

Things are getting a little scary in the podcast lounge—we’re talking with fraud expert (and snappy dresser!) Rob Woellhaf. As the vice president of fraud management at Mountain America Credit Union, Rob has a unique insight into the latest ways scammers are targeting people to get access to their accounts.

Tune in and you’ll learn about:

• The phone support scam.
• The financial institution representative scam.
• Additional red flags to watch out for.

Many large companies—like Amazon, Google and Microsoft—don’t publish a direct phone number for tech or customer support. In a phone support scam, fraudsters take advantage of this by planting fake numbers on the internet and then just waiting for unsuspecting people to call in.

Rob dives into how the fraudsters manipulate the situation to make you think you owe them money—and many people happily pay it! Why? Find out more in our podcast video.

Another popular imposter scam is where fraudsters send out a blast text to phone numbers they get online—it could be a list from the dark web or from legitimate sources. They then pretend to be a representative from your financial institution alerting you of suspicious activity on your account.

Watch our video above to see how Rob explains what happens next and how to prevent it.

Wondering about the best ways to confirm you’re dealing with a scammer? Rob’s got a few critical red flags you’ll want to know more about.

One last thing to remember—the onus to verify someone’s identity is always on the person who initiated the call. So, if you call in to Mountain America, we will ask identifying questions to confirm we are talking with the actual member. The same would happen if you had left a message and we return your call. However, if we call you out of the blue, we will provide information to confirm that we are who we say we are.

Take a look at some additional ways you can protect yourself.