Have you ever wondered how scammers are able to trick smart people out of their money or personal information? Often, that’s due to a tactic called Social Engineering. Social engineering is becoming an increasingly common tactic in scams. Here’s how to stay aware.

About Social Engineering

Social Engineering is:

• A psychological, manipulative tactic
• Involves deception or pressure to play on your emotions
• Often relies on exploiting a target’s good intentions – like the desire to help others

Social Engineering Looks Like…

There are a few different tricks scammers employ when they use social engineering.

Face-to-face, a scammer might:

• Build warm feelings through compliments or personal conversation
• Create a sense of urgency so that they can make suggestions and control the situation

Over the phone, bad actors may use one or more of these tactics:

• Create a sense of urgency through background noise or side conversations with a third person
• Encourage feelings of compassion by saying they are sick or by using the sound of a child crying
• Be extra polite or incredibly rude

Via email, chat, or text, a fraudster could:

• Create a sense of urgency by telling you there may be fraud in progress on your account
• Tell you to act immediately by clicking a link to log in to your account
• Ask for your account number, debit card number, or login credentials

What to Do if You Encounter a Scam:

If you think you’ve encountered a scam, here’s what you should do:

• Hang up or end communication
• If it’s over text, report the incident to your cellphone carrier
• Contact your bank and let them know what happened
• Enable card and account alerts
• Change your username and password – especially for your bank accounts

You can always contact our Customer Care team at 1.800.205.3464 if you think you’re being targeted by a scammer and aren’t sure what to do next.