Smart About Money: Ignore the Scammers

There’s only one reason why someone is coaching you to lie to your bank about your reason for making a significant withdrawal from your account — they are scamming you. Period.

It doesn’t matter what claims, promises or threats they’ve made. Every red alarm should be blaring when someone tells you to lie to your bank about why you’re making a withdrawal — saying things like, “It’s your money,” or “The bank has no right to question you.”

Nick Maffeo

Scammers are heartless, relentless criminals. They “win” when they get their victim’s money. The scammers understand that banks are trying to protect people, so they coach their potential victims to lie to the bank. And banks are fighting back.

If your bank asks why you’re making a withdrawal, you have basically arrived at your last chance to save yourself from becoming a scam victim. After that, if you willingly send your money to wherever the scammer said you should send it, then it’s game over. The scammer wins.

If someone has coached you and encouraged you to lie to the people at the bank, be truthful and tell the bankers that. No matter what the scammer says or how much you dearly wish (or fear) that their story is true, you can’t trust that voice on the phone. You can trust your bank.

(It’s truly a shame that so many scam victims choose to believe an anonymous voice on the phone and not the real people at the bank who have often lived and worked in the community for decades. But then the bankers aren’t making wild promises or wild threats that have the victim adrenaline-fueled and reacting without thinking.)

People make friends in so many ways, and these days, striking up a friendship with someone you have only met online is not uncommon, especially through social media. Which is why scammers learn just enough about a potential victim to make some connection so as not to seem like a complete stranger. But scammers behave quite differently from the good people you might “meet” online or in person.

Scammers push. They demand secretiveness. Some of what they say doesn’t make sense. They tell stories about an opportunity to make out-of-this-world investment returns, or they promise a relationship. Some make very serious threats.

A non-scammer friend might ask if you’d be interested in buying a $10 raffle ticket for their kid’s fundraiser at school. A scammer will say you should borrow against your home equity line or clean out your retirement account or withdraw all your savings to “invest” or “pay a tax” or to “keep your money safe.” It’s a world of difference.

Scammers don’t care that the IRS expects victims to pay taxes on money withdrawn from retirement accounts — money that’s gone now. Scammers don’t care that becoming the victim of a scam leaves people humiliated and deeply shaken. They don’t care that falling for a scam leaves some people’s families wondering if the victim has a cognitive impairment. The only thing they care about is getting your money.

If you find yourself doing something you would never ordinarily do — like staying on your phone in the bank while withdrawing a large sum in a high-pressure situation and lying to your bank about the reason why — then you are being scammed.

Ignore their wild claims or their empty threats and hang up the phone. Trust the bank and tell them the truth. You will be very glad that you did.

Nick Maffeo is the President & CEO of Canton Co-operative Bank in Canton. Have a question? Email to submissions@thecantoncitizen.com.

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Posted by Nick Maffeo on Jul 12 2024. Filed under Featured Content, Opinion, Smart About Money. Both comments and pings are currently closed.