Common Scams & Red Flags

Protect Yourself from Common Scams

The banking industry is witnessing a significant surge in text message and phone call scams. These criminals are impersonating Isabella Bank and other financial institutions to deceive you into revealing sensitive personal information.

Be vigilant: these requests are fraudulent. Never share your personal or account details with anyone.

Fraudsters are relentless in their development of scams to outsmart the existing authentication controls put in place to protect your account information. Here are some recent and common scams to look out for.

Tax Scams:

Scammers pose as IRS agents, using phone calls, emails, or text messages to demand immediate payment, threaten legal action, or request sensitive information. It’s important to know the IRS will never call, email, or text you demanding payment or threatening arrest. Instead, they will always contact you first through an official letter by mail. You can verify any IRS contact by calling 1-800-829-1040.

---

Bank Fraud Text Message and Phone Call Scams:

The banking industry has seen an increase in the number of text message and phone call scams. In ongoing scams, they are impersonating Isabella Bank and other financial institutions in an attempt to mislead consumers into sharing their personal and account information. Please be aware that these attempts are scams, and it is important that YOU DO NOT provide any information to them. As your trusted banking partner, Isabella Bank understands the importance of protecting your personal and account information. We have many layers of security in place to keep our customers’ information safe and protecting that information is paramount to all of us.

---

Human Voice Replication: 

This is a sophisticated scam where criminals use artificial intelligence to replicate human voices, impersonating family members or trusted individuals to deceive you into revealing sensitive information or sending money. 

---

Money Mules Fuel Fraud:

What are money mules? Money mules are people who receive and move money obtained by victims of fraud. Some money mules know they’ve been recruited to assist criminal activity, but others become money mules without realizing their activity is benefiting fraudsters.

---

Keystroke Logging/Virus Attacks: 

Keylogging is a method by which fraudsters record your actual keystrokes and mouse clicks. Keyloggers are "Trojan" software programs that target your computer's operating system (Windows, Mac OS, etc.) and are "installed" via a virus. These can be particularly dangerous because the fraudster has captured your user ID and password and anything else you have typed while online. If you are like most other users and have the same ID and PIN/Password for many different online accounts, you have essentially granted the fraudster access to any company with whom you conduct business. 

---

Phishing:

Phishing is a scam where fraudsters request personal information from users. While requests are most commonly in the form of an email from an organization you may or may not do business with, they could also be from a phone call, text message or letter. The request is made to look exactly like it came from the organization, complete with company logos and other convincing information. The request usually states that the company needs you to update your personal information or that your account is about to become inactive or frozen, all in an effort to get you to supply your information. Please remember no reputable business will ever contact you in these ways requesting that you update your personal information, including account numbers, system passwords or Social Security Numbers.