Fraud Alerts
Call Spoofing Alert
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/scammers-can-fake-caller-id-info
As a reminder, Regent Bank will not call you and ask for your account or card numbers.
A unique type of technology now enables fraudsters to fake the number they are calling from by making a false number appear on your caller ID. It’s extremely effective, because the number displayed appears to be your bank’s correct contact number.
The scam is called “spoofing”. Criminals clone the actual telephone number of an organization they want to impersonate, such as the bank. Using specialized technology, the number appears on the victim’s caller ID display.
Then, when you answer the call, they often pose as bank staff, police officers or other trusted organizations in order to persuade you to disclose sensitive financial and personal details – often on the pretense that fraud has been detected on your account.
In many cases – because a well-known precaution for phone scams is to hang up and initiate the phone call yourself – the criminal will ask you to call the bank on the number on the back of the bank card (the same number displayed on your handset). But instead of terminating the call on their end, the fraudsters simply keep the phone line open, play a fake dialing tone and pretend to answer your “call.”
Having convinced you of their legitimacy, they will then ask you to move money to a secure account, or in some extreme cases, hand your debit or credit cards over to a courier.
While the technology needed to spoof someone’s number has existed for years, the scam itself is a recent phenomenon.
If a number appears on your phone’s caller ID display, you shouldn’t necessarily assume you know where the call is originating. Further, if a caller is trying to draw your attention to the number on your phone display, it’s very unlikely the call is genuine, because there is no logical reason to point it out.