LITTLE ROCK – Following a recent uptick in scams involving people impersonating banking representatives, Attorney General Tim Griffin issued the following consumer alert to help Arkansans identify these types of scams and protect themselves:
“Imposter scams are one of the most dangerous types of robocalls. In 2023 alone, Americans lost close to $2 billion to imposter scams. A popular form of these calls are bank imposter scams, in which the caller impersonates the recipient’s bank in order to obtain personally identifiable information from the call recipient. In these scams, the caller claims that fraudulent activity has been detected on the call recipient’s account. The call recipient is then asked to provide identifying information—such as PINs, bank account numbers and answers to security questions. The scammer then uses that information to access the consumer’s account. These scams are particularly believable when the callers spoof their calls, causing the bank’s telephone number to appear on the consumer’s caller ID.
“Bank imposter scammers prey on consumer fear and attempt to instill a sense of urgency to pressure consumers to act without thinking.”
If you receive a phone call or text message by someone purporting to be with your bank, use the following tips to keep yourself and your finances secure.
• If you receive a call from someone claiming to be with your bank, hang up and call your bank. Do not call a number that the caller tells you to call. Call the number on your account statement to confirm that you are speaking with your financial institution.
• Do not share sensitive financial information to anyone who calls you—even if the number on your caller ID belongs to your bank. Do not give a caller your password, PIN, security question answers, or other identifying information. Your bank will never ask for this information.