Preventing scams and fraud, banks offer tips to protect seniors

HARTFORD, Wis. - Phones are always ringing at Staffing Support Specialists in Hartford. But on a July afternoon, one call in particular caused quite a scare. 

Warning to seniors

What we know:

"They said there were some ACH, automated transactions, that had been put against my account," recalled company president Ane Ohm.

Ohm said the caller ID showed "Bank Five Nine," where she banks. The woman on the other end was helpful. 

"She said, ‘I need to set up a new account for you. I’m going to give you some new credentials,'" Ohm said. 

The call came late on a Friday afternoon. Ohm was already distracted trying to leave the office for the weekend. But when the caller asked for Ohm’s current account info, that set off a red flag. 

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"I knew. I knew it wasn’t valid," said Ohm. "At the same time, she was very nice. We had a nice conversation. She did all these things to try and build trust with me and even though I knew I shouldn’t – I really wanted to. I wanted to give her that information.I didn’t want to disappoint her."

Ohm stopped talking and hung up the phone. Her next call was to her bank.

Scamers are persistent

What we know:

"The scammers are getting better at what they do. And they are very persistent," said Sharon Manke, Security Officer at Bank Five Nine in Oconomowoc. "We’re a community bank. We get to know a lot of our customers. When someone comes in and says ‘I’d like to withdraw $10,000 in cash’ we want to know why."

Manke spoke with FOX6 News about recent cases she worked on. They include: 

• Grandparent scams, where someone calls an elderly person telling them their grandson or granddaughter is in trouble and needs money
• Small business scams, where places like Ohm’s Staffing Support Specialists are targeted
• Romance scams

"Someone is being kind and whatever to them and the relationship grows and grows, and they start sending money," Manke explained. 

Manke said one customer sent his paychecks to a Russian fiancé he never met. There was roughly a 40-year age gap between the two. Manke said the man only had one photo of the woman that he printed from an email. 

"It got to the point where he had no money left," Manke recalled. "He was going to be evicted from his apartment. It’s heartbreaking."

So what takes place behind the scenes at a bank when fraud is reported? 

"We have to first determine how much information they’ve given the scammer," Manke explained. 

No guarantees for victims

Dig deeper:

There is no guarantee victims will ever get their money back. Bank account information is often tied to things like credit cards and loans and Manke said it can take weeks to stop the financial bleeding. 

"We need to shut down all their accounts and online banking and start from scratch," Manke said. 

"We would never ask you, ‘Hey, give me that username and password.’ We know! We set it up," said Morgan Dornfeldt, standing over Ohm’s desk in Hartford.

Dornfeldt is Bank Five Nine’s Cash Management Officer. She said there’s a lot we can learn from Ohm’s call.

Beware of "spoofing"

What they're saying:

"In Ane’s case, unfortunately, like it’s happening to several other financial institutions, our phone number was spoofed," Manke said. 

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‘Spoofing’ is when a scammer disguises themselves as a legitimate bank or government agency. Dornfeldt said even when scammers are unsuccessful in trying to take your money, they use the knowledge people give them about their banks to make their next call sound more convincing. 

Based on the number of customers who reported similar incidents to Bank Five Nine, Ohm was the eighth person who picked up the phone. 

"Always have your guard up when somebody is calling and asking for some of your personal information," Manke advised.

Troubling data

By the numbers:

According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), consumers lost $12.5 billion to fraud last year alone. The FTC reports that’s a 25% increase from the year before. 

The American Bankers Association set up BanksNeverAskThat.com as an online resource to help protect your money. 

The biggest takeaways? Be leery of any urgent warnings. Your real bank won’t ever pressure you to log in over a text message or email. And don’t just rely on caller ID. When something doesn’t feel right – even when it looks official – hang up and call someone you know at your bank.

LINK: Help seniors stay safe from financial scams; tips from Bank Five Nine

"We know them by name, we know them by face when they walk into our branches," Dornfeldt said. "We know their voice when they are calling us over the phone."

When Ohm asked the caller to name some co-workers, the fraudster couldn’t. 

"It was the first indicator that something was off," said Ohm. "Because I know the people at Bank Five Nine. I know the people working there."

Set up fraud alerts

What you can do:

Manke said setting up fraud alerts on your account – texts or emails to notify you of unusual transitions - and credit monitoring can help. But it’s no match for your greatest tool against fraud – your gut.

"It’s actually why I’m talking to you," said Ohm. "It’s important to me that people know about this. If it happens – it’s not a thing.  You don’t ever give out your credentials."