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The FBI is warning the public about a scam that tricks you into transferring funds to "reverse" instant payments.
First the scammer will send an automated message about a fraud alert and ask if the person attempted to do an instant payment in x amount and to reply with a YES or NO. If the person responds no, then they will send a follow up message saying "our fraud specialist will be contacting you shortly."
Next the scammer will call the victim, pretend to be the "fraud specialist" and ask the person to give them their email address and remove their email from the digital payment app. The scammer will then tell the victim to do another instant payment transaction to cancel or reverse the original fraud attempt. The victim will think they are sending the payment to themselves when in reality they are sending it to the controlled bank account from the scammer.
Below are some precautions the FBI suggests you take when you receive a text message that could be from your bank or payment company.
- Be wary of unsolicited requests that want to verify account information and instead of responding to the message, contact the actual fraud department from that specific institution.
- Enable multi-factor authentication for all financial accounts.
- Be skeptical of those unsolicited text messages or emails.
Go to Consumer Affairs for more.