Kimberly Palmer: How to stay safe from financial scams
While there’s no way to guarantee you’ll completely avoid financial scams, there are steps you can take to reduce your chances of falling for one
One of the biggest mistakes you can make when it comes to protecting yourself from financial scams is thinking you’re too smart to be duped by one.
“We’re all vulnerable — we can all fall for a scam given the right set of circumstances,” says Eva Velasquez, president and CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center, a nonprofit organization that provides advice and assistance related to identity theft. Keeping yourself safe starts with accepting that fact, she adds.
“You look at the profiles of victims who filed complaints and it runs the gamut from highly educated, high-income people all the way down to the most vulnerable people in our population,” says John Breyault, vice president of public policy, telecommunications and fraud at the National Consumers League, a nonprofit advocacy group that speaks out about consumer concerns.
While there isn’t a “foolproof solution to stay safe from all scams,” as Breyault puts it, there are strategies you can employ to reduce your risk. Here are four of the most important ones:
HANG UP AND ‘GO TO THE SOURCE’
If you’re contacted by anyone claiming to be your bank or other familiar company, end the conversation and call the institution’s verified number yourself, Velasquez says. “We always say, ‘If you did not initiate the interaction, then you need to go to the source,’” she adds.
Otherwise, you don’t actually know who’s on the other end of the line, she says, especially because scammers can spoof the number that shows up on your caller ID so it might look legitimate.
In some cases, you might want to pay your bank a visit in person to get
Read more on abcnews.go.com
