Don’t Fall For Wire Fraud

$5,000 gone just like that. 

What seemed like a quick verification for a future event turned into an unimaginable loss… and it all started with a phone call. 

Jack made a google search for an event he planned to attend later this year. He searched for a phone number to call to reserve tickets and a vendor spot. He quickly found a number to call. 

The phone call seemed normal. They asked for his information and then proceeded to ask for payment. The only form of payment they would accept was a wire transfer, but they explained to Jack that they needed to verify that the payment would go through, so they would be doing several transactions. 

It started with a small amount of money – $500. The company told him that he should send the money and they would send it back once they received it. Simple. 

After that request, they asked them to send $5,000 in order to confirm that a large amount of money could be transferred, knowing his ticket cost and vendor spot would be around that amount. 

They sent the first $500 back, Jack thought, so what could be the harm in sending the $5,000. They had already gained his trust, and he really wanted to attend this event, so he came back into his bank and requested another wire transfer for the $5,000. 

While chatting with bank staff he left out some important information. 

• He really didn’t know who he was talking to. 
• He never independently verified the phone number he was calling. 
• The scammer demanded secrecy (telling him to keep the details between them and not share everything with the bank). Note: Secrecy is the #1 red flag of a scam!

After the wire transfer was completed, he tried calling the phone number back to confirm that they got the money and were sending it back. 

To his surprise, the phone number didn’t work. He had no way to get ahold of the person he had been chatting with over several days. 

The money was gone. 

Jack came back into his bank once he realized that he made a mistake. He talked through the entire process and provided all the real details of the interactions with this person. The bank quickly realized that Jack had been scammed, and there was no way to get that money back. 

And it all started with a google search and a fraudulent phone number. 

Jack called the first phone number he saw and immediately trusted that it was a reliable source…. And now he lost $5,000. 

The truth is, this happens more than we’d like to believe. Wire fraud is becoming more and more common, and wire transfers are most often irreversible. 

COMMON FORMS OF WIRE FRAUD

We are all susceptible to wire fraud, and it can happen in many ways. Wire fraud occurs when criminals use electronic communications, such as emails, texts, or phone calls to deceive individuals or businesses out of money. It typically involves impersonating a trusted source, creating urgency, and requesting non-traditional, fast payments like wire transfers or cryptocurrency. 

• Business Email Compromise (BEC): Fraudsters hack corporate email accounts to impersonate executives, vendors, or business partners. They manipulate employees into updating legitimate payment instructions or authorizing urgent wire transfers to fraudulent accounts.
• Real Estate Wire Fraud: Scammers intercept communications between buyers, sellers, and title companies. Shortly before a closing, the fraudster sends spoofed wiring instructions, tricking the homebuyer into wiring their down payment directly into a criminal’s account.
• Imposter & Tech Support Scams: Criminals pose as representatives from banks, government agencies (like the IRS or Social Security), or tech support. They create false urgency, claiming an account is compromised or an arrest warrant is pending to trick victims into immediately wiring funds.
• Investment & Romance Schemes: Fraudsters build trust online through dating apps or social media, eventually luring the victim into fraudulent cryptocurrency or investment platforms.

We are seeing a rise in these different types of wire fraud because of a few things: 

• The Rise of AI
  • Criminals are using AI to create very sophisticated phishing scams, create fake videos, and clone voices. This technology helps scammers impersonate family, friends, and business executives. 

• Irreversibility of Wires 
  • Wire transfers move money instantly and it is very hard to reverse them once they leave a bank. 

• Large Volume of Personal Data
  • There is a large amount of our personal data out there, and data breaches are common and have leaked tons of information that we don’t even know about. Scammers find and use this data to make their communication extremely personalized. 

• Global Jurisdiction Challenges
  • Many cybercrimes are now operating internationally, and cross-border scams make things quite complicated and hard for law enforcement to do anything to help a situation or prevent a scam from happening. 

So how do we avoid these types of fraudulent activity and keep ourselves and our assets secure? 

• Verify the Source: Double, triple, even quadruple-check who you are talking to. Never trust a phone number from a simple web search, email, voicemail, text, or social media direct message without verifying it on the company’s official website.
• Share the Details: When you come in to make a transaction, tell your banker exactly what it is for. We are trained to spot inconsistencies.
• Talk to Someone You Trust: Fraudsters thrive on isolation. Share what you are doing with a spouse, friend, or family member before moving money. Typically, when you say it out loud to a trusted individual, the illusion breaks, and you can stop the fraud before it happens.

Fraudsters have a way of blinding us from the truth and making us believe that everything is going to be okay. They play on our emotions and make things feel safe. 

Typically when we share the situation with another trusted individual, the truth gets revealed and we can stop the fraud before it gets worse. 

We are all in this together, and we are here to help you. 

If you find yourself in a situation that seems unusual or has spiraled out of control, call us or stop into one of our locations and we will do everything we can to assist. 

If Jack would have told his bank the full story right away, they could have stopped the wire transaction from happening. 

Stop. Verify. Ask Questions.