Security Center
Find out how to keep your accounts and money safe, and how to report fraud.
Types of Common Scams
Romance Scams and Pig Butchering
Romance Scams and Pig Butchering
Scammers can create fake profiles using online dating sites, apps and social media.
These scammers also will begin communicating using vishing. Once they gain your trust, they ask for money for an emergency, hospital bill or travel. They may even ask you to invest in something they say has a guaranteed return such as a cryptocurrency investment. To demonstrate the returns on investment, you’re directed to websites that appear authentic but are instead controlled by the scammer. They adjust their story to what they think will work in each situation but most often they can’t meet you in person.
TIP: Never send money to anyone you have only spoken to online or by phone. Be extremely cautious if you’re asked for money from someone who professes their love almost immediately. And do your research before you invest in anything. If it sounds too good to be true then it most likely is.
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Check Fraud
Check Fraud
Scammers can steal checks from mailboxes or ones not properly destroyed after being deposited. They can then use chemicals to erase and rewrite the checks to themselves or may use your personal information.
TIPS:
- Mail checks from inside the post office
- Keep documents safe
- Review statements regularly
- Monitor your accounts and verify the payee and check amounts
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Identity Theft
Identity Theft
FTC provides a great framework for consumers facing identity theft. Visit here for a complete list of all the steps you need to take action: https://www.identitytheft.gov/Steps
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Natural Disasters and Charity Scams
Natural Disaster and Charity Scams
When a natural disaster strikes, scammers do too.
After a natural disaster, fake charity scams are common. Protect yourself by only donating to established charities that you’ve researched.
Contractor scams might ask for cash upfront or won’t want you to use your insurance.
Do your research through organizations like the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Better Business Bureau (BBB), and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). You can report disaster relief scams to the FBI or FTC.
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Gift Card Scams
Gift Card Scams
Asking to be paid by gift card is always a scam.
Signs to watch out for:
- You’re directed to buy one or more gift cards — often referred to as “electronic vouchers” — as a quick means of making payment.
- You’re told to share the numbers on the back of the gift cards, by reading them off or sending a picture.
- The request comes from someone you wouldn’t expect to ask for money this way, like a utility company or family member.
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Tech Support Scams
Tech Support Scams
Watch out for the latest tech support and computer virus scams.
Scammers pretend to be tech support from a well-known company. They either call, text, or try to trick you into clicking a link in an email, text, or popup window, claiming there’s a problem with your computer like a virus or billing issue. To fix it, you inadvertently give them remote access to your computer.
Help protect yourself.
Scammers know the phrase “virus alert” immediately puts computer users into a panic. Never click on virus alerts, even if they look like they come from your computer company or an anti-virus company. If you think your computer was impacted, talk to a reputable service provider.
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Deepfakes and Impersonation
Deepfakes and Impersonations
Spoofing
Spoofing is when someone disguises an email address, sender name, phone number, or website URL -often just by changing one letter, symbol, or number- to convince you that you are interacting with a trusted source.
For example, you might receive an email that looks like it’s from your boss, a company you’ve done business with, or even from someone in your family but it actually isn’t.
Criminals count on being able to manipulate you into believing that these spoofed communications are real, which can lead you to download malicious software, send money, or disclose personal, financial or other sensitive information.
Deepfakes
What are deepfakes?
- Deepfakes use a type of technology called ‘machine learning’ to create a digital version of someone. This maps a person’s face and mouth movements so that it can copy them.
- Amateur deepfakes can be made using apps or programs, but they can usually be spotted by showing unusual flickering or blurring around someone’s face.
- Technology is advancing, meaning we need to be on guard for more realistic deepfakes appearing in our feed.
How to spot a deepfake:
- Unnatural eye movement: Eye movements that do not look natural — or a lack of eye movement, such as an absence of blinking — are red flags. It’s challenging to replicate the act of blinking in a way that looks natural. It’s also challenging to replicate a real person’s eye movements. That’s because someone’s eyes usually follow the person they’re talking to.
- Unnatural facial expressions: When something doesn’t look right about a face, it could signal facial morphing. This occurs when a simple stitch of one image has been done over another.
- Awkward facial-feature positioning: If someone’s face is pointing one way and their nose is pointing another, you should be skeptical about the video’s authenticity.
- A lack of emotion: You also can spot facial morphing or image stitches if someone’s face doesn’t seem to exhibit the emotion that should go along with what they’re supposedly saying.
- Awkward-looking body or posture: Another sign is if a person’s body shape doesn’t look natural or there is awkward or inconsistent positioning of the head and body. This may be one of the easier inconsistencies to spot because deepfake technology usually focuses on facial features rather than the whole body.
- Unnatural body movement: If someone looks distorted or off when they turn to the side or move their head, or their movements are jerky and disjointed from one frame to the next, you should suspect the video is fake.
- Unnatural coloring: Abnormal skin tone, discoloration, weird lighting, and misplaced shadows are all signs that what you’re seeing is likely fake.
- Hair that doesn’t look real: You won’t see frizzy or flyaway hair, because fake images won’t be able to generate these individual characteristics.
- Teeth that don’t look real: Algorithms may not be able to generate individual teeth, so an absence of outlines of individual teeth could be a clue.
- Blurring or misalignment: If the edges of images are blurry or visuals are misaligned — for example, where someone’s face and neck meet their body — you’ll know something is amiss.
- Inconsistent audio and noise: Deepfake creators usually spend more time on the video images rather than the audio. The result can be poor lip-syncing, robotic-sounding voices, strange word pronunciations, digital background noise, or even the absence of audio.
- Images that look unnatural when slowed down: If you watch a video on a screen that’s larger than your smartphone or have video-editing software that can slow down a video’s playback, you can zoom in and examine images more closely. Zooming in on lips, for example, will help you see if they’re really talking or if it’s bad lip-syncing.
- Hashtag discrepancies: There’s a cryptographic algorithm that helps video creators show that their videos are authentic. The algorithm is used to insert hashtags at certain places throughout a video. If the hashtags change, then you should suspect the video has been manipulated.
- Digital fingerprints: Blockchain technology can also create a digital fingerprint for videos. While not foolproof, this blockchain-based verification can help establish a video’s authenticity. Here’s how it works. When a video is created, the content is registered to a ledger that can’t be changed. This technology can help prove the authenticity of a video.
- Reverse image searches: A search for an original image, or a reverse image search with the help of a computer, can unearth similar videos online to help determine if an image, audio, or video has been altered in any way. While reverse video search technology is not publicly available yet, investing in a tool like this could be helpful.
- Video is not being reported on by trustworthy news sources: If what the person in a video is saying or doing is shocking or important, the news media will be reporting on it. If you search for information on the video and no trustworthy sources are talking about it, it could mean the video is a deepfake.
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Money Mules
Money Mules
A money mule is someone who transfers or moves illegally acquired money on behalf of someone else.
Criminals recruit money mules to help launder proceeds derived from online scams and frauds or crimes like human trafficking and drug trafficking. Money mules add layers of distance between crime victims and criminals, which makes it harder for law enforcement to accurately trace money trails.
Money mules can move funds in various ways, including through bank accounts, cashier’s checks, virtual currency, prepaid debit cards, or money service businesses.
Some money mules know they are supporting criminal enterprises; others are unaware that they are helping criminals profit.
Money mules often receive a commission for their service, or they might provide assistance because they believe they have a trusting or romantic relationship with the individual who is asking for help.
If you are moving money at the direction of another person, you may be serving as a money mule.
Types of Money Mules
Unwitting or unknowing money mules are unaware they are part of a larger scheme.
- Often solicited via an online romance scheme or job offer
- Asked to use their established personal bank account or open a new account in their true name to receive money from someone they have never met in person
- May be told to keep a portion of the money they transferred
- Motivated by trust in the actual existence of their romance or job position
Witting money mules ignore obvious red flags or act willfully blind to their money movement activity.
- May have been warned by bank employees they were involved with fraudulent activity
- Open accounts with multiple banks in their true name
- May have been unwitting at first but continue communication and participation
- Motivated by financial gain or an unwillingness to acknowledge their role
Complicit money mules are aware of their role and actively participate.
- Serially open bank accounts to receive money from a variety of individuals/businesses for criminal reasons
- Advertise their services as a money mule, to include what actions they offer and at what prices. This may also include a review and/or rating by other criminal actors on the money mule’s speed and reliability.
- Travel, as directed, to different countries to open financial accounts or register companies
- Operate funnel accounts to receive fraud proceeds from multiple lower level money mules
- Recruit other money mules
- Motivated by financial gain or loyalty to a known criminal group
Protect Yourself
Criminals often target students, those looking for work, or those on dating websites, but anyone can be approached to be a money mule.
- Perform online searches to check the legitimacy of any company that offers you a job.
- Do not accept any job offers that ask you to use your own bank account to transfer money. A legitimate company will not ask you to do this.
- Be wary if an employer asks you to form a company to open up a new bank account.
- Be suspicious if an individual you met on a dating website wants to use your bank account for receiving and forwarding money.
- Never give your financial details to someone you don’t know and trust, especially if you met them online.
Signs of a Money Mule Scam
Work-from-Home Job Opportunities
- You received an unsolicited email or social media message that promises easy money for little or no effort.
- The “employer” you communicate with uses web-based email services (such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, Outlook, etc.).
- You are asked to open a bank account in your own name or in the name of a company you form to receive and transfer money.
- As an employee, you are asked to receive funds in your bank account and then “process” or “transfer” funds via: wire transfer, ACH, mail, or money service business (such as Western Union or MoneyGram).
- You are allowed to keep a portion of the money you transfer.
- Your duties have no specific job description.
Dating and Social Media Sites
- An online contact or companion, whom you have never met in person, asks you to receive money and then forward these funds to one or more individuals you do not know.
Cryptocurrency Kiosks
- You are directed to deposit cash into one or more cryptocurrency kiosks.
Consequences of Being a Money Mule
Acting as a money mule is illegal and punishable, even if you aren’t aware you’re committing a crime.
If you are a money mule, you could be prosecuted and incarcerated as part of a criminal money laundering conspiracy. Some of the federal charges you could face include mail fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, money laundering, and aggravated identity theft.
Serving as a money mule can also damage your credit and financial standing. Additionally, you risk having your own personally identifiable information stolen and used by the criminals you are working for, and you may be held personally liable for repaying money lost by victims.
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Elder Financial Abuse
Elder Financial Abuse
Elder financial exploitation is the fastest-growing form of elder abuse and it is defined as the illegal, unauthorized, or improper use of an older person’s funds, property, or assets. It’s a crime that deprives older adults of their resources and ultimately their independence. Perpetrators may be family members, friends, neighbors, caregivers, health care providers, business associates, or strangers.
What should you do to protect yourself?
- Plan ahead to protect your assets and to ensure your wishes are followed. Consider a financial caregiver.
- Shred receipts, bank statements and unused credit card offers before throwing them away.
- Lock up your checkbook, account statements and other sensitive information when others will be in your home.
- Regularly review your credit report. Never give personal information, including Social Security Number, account number or other financial information to anyone over the phone unless you initiated the call and trust the other party.
- Never pay a fee or taxes to collect sweepstakes or lottery “winnings.”
- Never rush into a financial decision. Ask for details in writing and get a second opinion.
- Consult with a financial advisor or attorney before signing any document you don’t understand.
- Get to know your banker and build a relationship with the people who handle your finances. They can look out for any suspicious activity related to your account.
- Check references and credentials before hiring anyone. Don’t allow workers to have access to information about your finances.
- Pay with credit cards instead of cash to keep a paper trail.
- You have the right not to be threatened or intimidated. If you think someone close to you is trying to take control of your finances, call your local Adult Protective Services and tell someone at your bank.
- Trust your instincts. Exploiters often are very skilled. They can be charming and forceful in their effort to convince you to give up control of your finances. Don’t be fooled—if something doesn’t feel right, it may not be right. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
What should you do if you are a victim of financial exploitation?
- Talk to a trusted family member or friend.
- Tell your bank.
- Report it to your local police.
- File a report with the FBI at IC3.Gov.
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Phishing, Vishing, and Business Email Compromise
Phishing, Vishing, and Business Email Compromise
Phishing/Vishing
Phishing schemes often use spoofing techniques to lure you in and get you to take the bait. These scams are designed to trick you into giving information to criminals that they shouldn’t have access to.
In a phishing scam, you might receive an email that appears to be from a legitimate business and is asking you to update or verify your personal information by replying to the email or visiting a website. The web address might look similar to one you’ve used before. The email may be convincing enough to get you to take the action requested.
Once you click on that, you’re sent to a spoofed website that might look nearly identical to the real thing-like your bank or credit card site-and asked to enter sensitive information like passwords, credit card numbers, banking PINs, etc. These false websites are used solely to steal your information.
Phishing has evolved and now has several variations that use similar techniques:
- Vishing scams happen over the phone, voice mail, or VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) calls.
- Smishing scams happen though SMS (text) messages.
- Pharming scams happen when malicious code is installed on your computer to redirect you to fake websites.
Business Email Compromise
In a BEC scam -also known as email account compromise (EAC)- criminals send an email message that appears to come from a known source making a legitimate request such as:
- A vendor your company regularly deals with sends an invoice with an updated mailing address.
- A company CEO asks their assistance to purchase dozens of gift cards to send out as employee rewards. She asks for the serial numbers so she can email them out right away.
- A homebuyer receives a message from their title company with instructions on how to write their down payment
How to protect yourself
- Remember that companies generally don’t contact you to ask for your username or password.
- Don’t click on anything in an unsolicited email or text message. Look up the company’s phone number on your own (don’t use the one a potential scammer is providing) and call the company to ask if the request is legitimate.
- Carefully examine the email address, URL, and spelling used in any correspondence. Scammers use slight differences to trick our eye and gain your trust.
- Be careful what you download. Never open an email attachment from someone you don’t know and be wary of email attachments forwarded to you.
- Set up two-factor (or multi-factor) authentication on any account that allows it. Never disable it.
- Be careful with what information you share online or on social media. By openly sharing things like pet names, schools you attended, family members, and your birthday, you give a scammer all the information they may need to guess your password or answer your security questions.
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Steps for Recovering from Identity Theft or Fraud
- Report suspicious transactions to your financial institution(s)
- File a fraud report with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) online here: https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/
- Place a fraud alert with all 3 major credit bureaus. Consider placing a freeze on your credit reports to prevent anyone from opening any unknown accounts
- Set up an account with a credit monitoring company that can provide real-time fraud alerts and expert support to keep your personal information safe online.
File a complaint with the FBI IC3 Complaint Center. For cryptocurrency scams go to this FBI IC3 page
Gather the following information for the complaint:
- Complainant’s information – name, address, telephone number, email address. If you are filing on behalf of someone else, you will provide your contact information separately
- Make sure you have all the financial loss and account information. Transaction date(s), amount(s), how the money was provided, who the money was provided to as well as the total amount of loss
- For cryptocurrency transactions, provide details such as the cryptocurrency address(es), the amounts and types of cryptocurrencies, transaction hashes, and the date(s) and time(s) of the transactions
- Any details you have about the scammer such as how you met, what platforms did they use to communicate, any domain names, website addresses, any phone numbers or other identifiers. Was there any two-factor authentication or “one time passcode” information used
- If you can, get screenshots of any correspondence via email or text messages
- Contact local police department and file an identity theft report
- Contact the FBI Memphis Office at 901-747-4300 or if you live in Mississippi, contact their FBI at 662-280-0717
- Check your driver’s license with the state and confirm your identity is intact with them. If there is suspicious activity and it is in TN, you can contact the TN Dept of Safety at 615-251-5185 or the Mississippi Office of Homeland Security at 601-933-7200 and also visit a local DMV office
- If you suspect your social security number has been used, you can report it to the Office of the Inspector General at https://oig.ssa.gov/
- Change all passwords to the following:
- Email accounts
- Bank/credit union/brokerage/insurance account passwords. *Do not reuse passwords. Choose unique, complicated passwords for each one
- Be sure your antivirus and antimalware providers are up-to-date and active on your computer(s)
- Be very aware of phishing emails and vishing calls/texts. Once you have fallen victim, the threat actors are more likely to try to obtain access/information with multiple forms of fraud/scams. Be very cautious. Do not open attachments or click links from unknown sources or unexpected deals//blasts/notices that seem too good to be true
- https://www.identitytheft.gov/ is a site made by the FTC to tell consumers of their rights, provide recover plans, sample letters, and more
- Operation Shamrock: This non-profit’s mission is to educate, mobilize, and disrupt scamming operations run by transnational organized crime. Great site for knowledge and resources
- Acting as a money mule is illegal and punishable. Here is a website that discusses what a money mule is: Money Mules — FBI
Want to learn more? Check out some of the articles and videos below!
