Last week a Morongo Basin resident received a call from an unknown male telling her that he was from her bank, and that her account had been hacked into. The male told the victim that he would help set up fraud detection on her account, and requested that she tell him her account information, which she provided.
A few days later, the victim found transactions from San Diego totaling just over $19,000 dollars from her account.
The sheriffs report that they are continuing the investigation.
Phone scammers are getting more sophisticated in their approach – using readily available information to impersonate a utility company, bank employee, federal agent or even a family member. It’s important to educate friends and family members on fielding these types of calls. If a caller asks to use a private, anonymous payment system like Venmo, Zelle or Paypal, it is almost certainly not a legitimate attempt to collect a debt from a company. Currently there aren’t any government institutions or public utilities that use these types of payment apps.
In the case of this scam – never share sensitive account information over the phone if you are unsure of the phone’s origin. It is your right to ask identifying questions of anybody calling you, and if you ever question the validity of a call from your bank, hang up and call your bank’s phone number directly. If you or someone you know suspects you’ve been the victim of a scam – contact the sheriff’s department and your bank immediately.
