Impersonation scams
This is when a scammer pretends to be someone else in an effort to get your money. They could pose as the police, your bank, a business or even a friend or relative.
How it can happen
You get a call, email or text message that seems to be from someone you know or have dealings with. Scammers can make it look like these communications are coming from a genuine email address or phone number – a company name or someone you know. This is called ‘number spoofing’.
The person calls you claiming to be from Zempler Bank or another bank and warns you of suspected fraud transactions on your account. They’ll ask you to provide a one time password (OTP) from your Zempler Bank app to cancel the transaction.
In reality, this is a scammer trying to make a purchase on your account, but they need the OTP to complete the purchase. They may request the OTP verbally or by asking you to enter it into the phone keypad. Once the OTP is provided and the transaction goes through, the caller will either hang up or attempt another transaction and request another OTP.
How you can protect yourself
If anyone ever contacts you asking for an unfamiliar payment or to transfer money to a ‘safe account’ or that you’re ‘at risk’, it’s a scam. Hang up or delete the message.
Be very careful opening links and attachments in text messages and emails. Make sure the sender is legitimate (try clicking on the sender email address to see the full unmasked address) and don’t open anything asking for personal information or payment. Instead, go to a trusted source like a company website, find a phone number or email and contact them to see if it was genuine.
Never give someone who’s called you out of the blue remote access to your computer or any other device.