A phone scam was so convincing that even veteran CBS News correspondent Matt Gutman admits that he nearly walked into his bank and emptied his account before realizing something was terribly wrong. Gutman recounted receiving a call from someone claiming to work in his bank’s fraud protection department. The caller introduced herself by name, provided a badge ID, and appeared to have detailed knowledge of his personal banking information. “They seemed to know so much about me, about my bank account,” Gutman said. He went on to explain that they suspected there was significant fraud at the bank branch where he banked and wanted to enlist his help in catching the perpetrators. The conversation took a more alarming turn when the caller outlined what she claimed was a plan to catch the criminals. "What we need you to do, in order to intercept these fraudsters, is to go into the bank and withdraw everything from your bank account and take it with you so you have it in cash, and that’ll trigger the fraudsters into action. That’s how we’ll be able to catch them,” said the caller. Gutman said he thought that was a little weird. His first thought was: “Why would you use a regular citizen for something that seems like a law enforcement issue?” Then the caller said something that set off alarm bells in Gutman’s brain. “You can’t tell anybody at the bank that this is happening because they might be in on it.” That’s when Gutman realized he was dealing with scammers. This case underscores how increasingly sophisticated digital scams have become, with fraudsters using convincing scripts and personal information to gain victims’ trust before attempting to steal their money. If you receive a call from someone claiming to be a bank or fraud investigator, hang up.
