Bad actors will pose as anyone in order to gain access to your accounts—impersonating utility companies, federal employees, and even pretending to be your bank. This is a tactic known as “spoofing.”

Scammers who employ this method may even be able to have the company they’re impersonating show up on caller ID, or to mimic the official business number, so it looks like a legitimate call.

Often, scammers will give you a deadline or put pressure on you to make the call seem urgent. They may claim your water will be turned off, that you will be fined, or that there was suspicious activity on your account. This is a tactic to make you stressed, frantic, and less able to stop and think.

Luckily, there are a few ways you can determine a fake call from a legitimate one.

How to Tell if it’s Real

While we may call you to talk about suspicious activity on your account, we will NEVER:

• Ask for your user ID or password
• Ask you to share a multi-factor verification security code
• Demand payment over the phone
• Ask you to authorize a Zelle^® payment to the bank

We go into more detail about how to spot a scam in our Security Center.

What to Do

If you receive a call from someone claiming to be part of First Merchants who is employing any of the above tactics:

• Do not provide personal information – especially not usernames or verification codes
• Hang up
• Call the bank from the number listed on our website
• Do not redial the number that called you, and do not use a number from Google search results
• Tell First Merchants someone attempted to impersonate a fraud investigator to gain access to your account

We encourage you to stay vigilant. If you suspect fraud has occurred, alert one of the three credit reporting agencies and your financial institutions and consider turning on text alerts for your accounts. If you are the victim of identity theft of fraud-related crime, file a report with your local police or sheriff, and report identity theft to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).