As a customer, you may be busy and quick to trust someone who sounds like a customer service representative from a major company or service provider. You may even feel that it’s rude or too time consuming to hang up and verify that the information request is legitimate. That’s why it’s important to remember that fraudsters often use social engineering tactics to create a sense of urgency and fear (for example: “someone has stolen your account information”) which can inhibit critical thinking and make you forget what you know about scams. We want all consumers to know the signs of scams and how to outsmart fraudster.

A scammer over phone or text may:

• Be impatient, abrasive, pushy, or even rude
• Be over-complimentary
• Claim to be a representative of the government, community, business, law enforcement, charity, or a service provider
• Evade your questions
• Try to relate to you on an issue so that you drop your guard
• Gain your trust by having you verify some personal information, then ask you for more
• Try to rush you into a decision before the conversation is over
• Offer a deal that seems “too good to be true”
• Trigger a one-time PIN for you and ask you to read it back