Remember, the FDIC does not send unsolicited correspondence asking for money or sensitive personal information, and we’ll never threaten you.

The March 2020 FDIC Consumer News issue has more on how to avoid being scammed by government impostors. Government Impostor Scams are when fraudsters pretend to be an employee of the FDIC or other government agency, sometimes even using the names of real people. Vishing, similar to phishing and smishing, is when scammers use phone services such as a live phone call, a “robocall,” or a voicemail to try to trick you into providing personal information by sounding like a legitimate business or government official. Same idea, they pretend they are from an organization you might know and trust (such as a bank or the IRS) and try to get your personal information. Smishing is similar to phishing, but instead of using email, the criminal uses text messaging to reach you. Criminals often try to threaten, even frighten people by stating “you’re a victim of fraud” or some other urgent-sounding message to trick you into providing information without thinking. The sender pretends to be from a bank, a retail store, or government agency and makes the email appear legitimate. Phishing is a term for scams commonly used when a criminal uses email to ask you to provide personal financial information. This article defines some terms used for different online scams and how they work, so you can protect your money. In many cases, their goal is to steal money from you.

They use a variety of ways to try to trick people into providing Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, and other valuable information. Avoid phishing, smishing, vishing, and other scamsĬriminals are constantly trying to steal consumers’ personal data using fake emails, websites, phone calls, and even text messages.

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