A WOMAN lost thousands of dollars despite immediately alerting her bank after becoming the victim of a scam.
Tara Cornett from San Diego, California, runs her own business and is therefore heavily reliant on her profits.
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This is why when a text message came through about a suspicious transaction, Cornett immediately took action, as many bank users would.
“It was asking me if I had made this $1,000 transaction,” she told local ABC affiliate KGTV.
Believing she was talking to her bank, Cornett replied “no” and immediately received a phone call from a person purporting to be from the bank.
This is when Cornett made a huge mistake that put her livelihood and business at risk.
When Cornett answered the phone call, the supposed bank representative told her that someone had attempted to use her credit card and take out a loan.
In order to secure her account, the person on the phone informed the business owner that he would cancel her credit card and reissue another one.
However, she would have to verify her account by taking action when push notifications came through upon his request.
Cornett received and accepted the push alerts and then it slowly dawned on her that all was not as it seemed.
“I get these notifications through to my email that he was talking about,” she said.
“It’s a few different emails. One of them says someone’s been added to your account and another one says that your loan has been approved.
“Suddenly I was like, this isn’t adding up.”
When she hung up the phone and called her bank, Cornett was informed that a $6,000 loan had been taken out in her name.
She called the incident “absolutely terrifying” as a business owner and a bank customer.
“I don’t pay myself a whole lot. I don’t have the money to take on a $6,000 loan right now,” she said.
A cybersecurity expert told the outlet that it is likely Cornett was a victim of identity theft.
The scammers already had a lot of her personal information and were able to take out a loan from her account.
Top tips on avoiding scams from a bank
As scams become more sophisticated with the use of artificial intelligence, it is important you know how to spot a scam:
- Be skeptical of online deals that seem too good to be true, especially on social media.
- Scammers will often use tactics to make you panicked so you make quick decisions – be cautious if you are told to take immediate action and verify who has contacted you.
- Chase Bank warns customers to “never return any unexpected funds without calling Chase first.”
- Never send money to someone you have only spoken to online or by phone as this is likely a romance scam.
- Unless you 100% know who you are talking to, never give someone remote access to your device.
- Never accept help from strangers at an ATM and always be vigilant when making withdrawals.
- Do not send money or click any links indicating that you have won a prize.
Source: Chase.com
Nikolas Behar, a professor of cybersecurity at the University of San Diego, explained that they likely had access to her account from a data breach.
If this is the case, the fraudsters just needed Cornett to approve their actions via the push alerts that are set up to prevent scams.
Even though Cornett had searched the Caller ID to confirm it was her bank, this move isn’t a good indicator of whether or not the number is real.
I don’t pay myself a whole lot. I don’t have the money to take on a $6,000 loan right now.
Tara Cornett
As scammers get more sophisticated, such information is easy to spoof.
“The fact that this happened to me, I feel like it can happen to anybody because they [are] just getting too good,” she said.
The fraud department at her bank refunded her the money and she has taken the additional steps to freeze her credit.
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