Your phone buzzes with an incoming call. The caller ID shows your bank’s name, and the person on the other end sounds professional, maybe even a little concerned. They are calling about suspicious activity on your account. Sounds legitimate, right?
It’s not. Falling for this increasingly sophisticated scam has already cost Americans more than $262 million in 2025 alone.
The FBI recently issued an alert warning about a surge in what’s known as account takeover fraud. Since January 2025, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center has received more than 5,100 complaints about this specific scheme.
The criminals behind it are getting better at what they do, and they are targeting individuals, businesses and organizations of all sorts.
How the scam actually works
Here is the playbook these criminals follow. They call, text or email you while pretending to be from your financial institution’s customer support or technical team. They will claim there is fraudulent activity on your account, often mentioning something alarming like unauthorized purchases or even firearms transactions to create urgency.
Then comes the hook. They will direct you to a fake website to “report the fraud” or connect you with a second scammer posing as a law enforcement officer. That fake website is designed to trick you into providing your login credentials and two-factor authentication codes.
Once scammers have that information, they take control of your accounts and steal your money by transferring it to themselves. They often transfer stolen funds to cryptocurrency wallets, which makes it virtually impossible to recover the stolen funds.
The whole operation is designed to make you panic and act fast, which is exactly what you should not do.
Practical steps to protect yourself
Knowing what to watch for can save you from becoming the next victim. Be immediately suspicious if someone contacts you claiming to be from your bank and asks for your login information, passwords or authentication codes.
Other warning signs include callers who create urgency, pressure you to act immediately or threaten consequences if you don’t comply right away. Requests to visit a website through a link they provide should also raise alarms.
Additionally, the FBI offered several specific recommendations to keep your money safe:
- Be thoughtful about what you share on social media. Details like your pet’s name, birthday and family information might seem harmless, but criminals use exactly this kind of data to answer your security questions or trick you into giving your login credentials.
- Set up two-factor authentication on every financial account you have, and never disable it. More importantly, never share those codes with anyone who contacts you, regardless of who they claim to be.
- Bookmark the official websites of your banks and other financial institutions. When you need to check your accounts, type the address directly or use your bookmark rather than clicking links in emails or texts. This simple habit eliminates the risk of landing on a fraudulent site that looks identical to the real thing.
- Monitor your accounts regularly for transactions you don’t recognize. The sooner you spot unauthorized activity, the better your chances of limiting the damage.
- Perhaps the most effective protection is simply not answering calls from unfamiliar numbers. If someone claims to be from your bank, hang up and call back using the number on the back of your ATM card or on the bank’s official website. This single step defeats most phone-based scams.
The criminals running these schemes are counting on you to react emotionally rather than think critically. Their entire “business model” depends on creating fear and urgency that prompt you to act without thinking.
The best defense is simply slowing down. No legitimate financial institution will ever pressure you to act immediately or ask for information they should already have.
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