Mind on Money Be on guard for financial scammers

 About once a year I am reminded of how dangerous today's world has become because of financial fraud. Like many bankers, investment advisers and other financial services industry professionals, I receive training every year on issues related to financial fraud, but despite this training I am often shocked and amazed at how widespread this problem in the United States is, and bad news, is getting worse.

At the moment, I think most Americans are in traditional campaigns about African officials and oil drivers who just need US bank accounts to "save" money while making details for money to be returned to the United States (and generous people please donate money, yes) , and although I still see these kinds of letters and emails sent by customers from time to time, almost all the illegal laughter at this point.

Unfortunately, as Americans have gained intelligence, scammers have also gained intelligence. The rapid growth of government programs as a result of COVID over the past 15 months has provided ample opportunity for fraudsters to use these various government programs, as well as the confusion surrounding them, to deceive Americans.

The scams no longer include negative grammar emails and promises of marine richness this year much of the action seems to focus on self-imposed U.S. government agencies. through emails and phone calls trying to obtain banking information and, in some cases, even direct payments from victims.

One of the saddest incidents, which inspired this column, occurred when a family member of someone close to me was contacted by telephone from someone as independent as the IRS. An IRS spokesman told the victim that his social security number had been used to rent a car that had been abandoned in another state known for drug fraud. To make the long story short, the victim was told that the bank account had been damaged due to the matter and that his money should be transferred to a IRS secure account to protect his assets. You can imagine how it ended here, and the poor victim was eventually robbed of his savings.

The IRS looks like a du du agency this year for actors, and as I was writing this column another scam email that says IRS has been shown to me. The email was asking for bank details to be tax deductible, and it looks like the only real way to tell you that the trick was to navigate over a hyper link embedded in the email to see if a web browser was pointing to a non-government website.

I wish I could say that protection from these forms of fraud was easy, but it is not. Contact with the IRS can be intimidating, and fraudsters are aware of this. In my experience the IRS communicates through written correspondence, so my advice is never to share an unsolicited phone call, text or email from the IRS. if email or phone is only received use 800-829-1040 to return a call, and if possible, contact a registered post regarding tax issues. While the IRS may scare me, I have found it to be very professional and helpful, although it is acknowledged that the timing at the official number above can be long.