DETROIT, MICHIGAN – APRIL 25: Dallas Turner poses after being selected 17th overall by the Minnesota Vikings during the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft at Campus Martius Park and Hart Plaza on April 25, 2024 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
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Earlier this year, Minnesota Vikings linebacker Dallas Turner fell prey to an imposter scam when he received a phone call from a scammer posing as an employee of JP Morgan Chase, his bank, informing him that someone had tried to impersonate him at a JP Morgan Chase branch in Arizona and was trying to wire funds from Turner’s account. He was then told that to protect his money he needed to immediately wire it to two different accounts at two different Chase banks in Minnesota, which Turner did, transferring $240,000 before he realized after speaking with a family member that he had been scammed. Minnesota police are still investigating the crime.
But this is not an isolated incident.
According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) American consumers lost $12.5 billion to fraud last year a 25% increase over the previous year with investment fraud accounting for $5.7 billion of reported losses in 2024. However, imposter scams were the second highest category of scams with reported losses of $2.95 billion.
Imposter scams where the scammers pose as a government employee, such as with the IRS or a company with which you do business such as your bank are, unfortunately, often very successful in stealing your money. They generally convince you that there is an emergency that requires you to provide personal information, pay them money directly or as was the case with Dallas Turner, send money to designated accounts that you are told will hold your money on your behalf to protect your funds.
While Turner was initially contacted by phone, according to the FTC, imposter scams primarily originate through text messages with bank text message imposter scams being the most reported text message scam.
Phony text messages that appear to come from your bank can be particularly problematic if you have signed up to receive text message alerts from your bank. Whenever you receive a text message you can never be sure who is really sending it to you. Using a technique called “spoofing” the scammer can make the number of the sender of the text appear to be the same number as that of your bank. Making matters worse, this spoofed number text message may appear in a legitimate thread of text messages from your bank due to how messaging apps group conversations. Messaging apps like iMessage or Android Messages often group texts by sender ID not by the actual source of the message so if the scammers spoofed the number, it can appear in a legitimate thread of your bank.
The best course of action when you receive such a text message, if you have a concern that it may be legitimate, is to merely independently contact your bank to determine whether or not the text message was a scam, but be careful that you do not misdial the telephone number of your bank as some scammers purchase phone numbers similar to those of legitimate banks hoping that they will receive calls from unwary consumers who may have merely misdialed the telephone number of their bank.
Some phony bank text message scams ask you to provide your username, password and account information. Legitimate banks do not call, text or email their customers asking for personal information. Always be skeptical of anyone asking for such information. Of course, if you receive a text message that appears to come from a bank at which you do not have an account, you can be confident it is a scam.
Another step you should take to prevent your account from being taken over even if someone manages to get your username and password is to set up dual factor authentication on your bank account.
The biggest red flag in this type of scam is to remember that no bank will ever under any circumstances direct you to withdraw your funds and put them into another account.
Finally, it is a good idea to sign up to receive legitimate text alerts from your bank which can be customized for your own particular needs.