Customers of local banks reported receiving calls today alerting them that their debit/ATM cards had been frozen and asking them to key in their card numbers so they could be released.
The callers identified themselves as representatives of the customers’ respective banks, according to Tonya Barber, security officer for F&M Bank.
Steve Fisher, senior executive vice president and general counsel for F&M, said customers of at least two other area banks have been called as part of the scam.
“I think they’re just targeting this area,” he said. “They’re using an electronic voice I guess to make it sound as if they are legitimate, and folks are responding to it.”
Fisher warned bank customers against providing any personal information to callers claiming to be from their banks. “There’s never a point where we’re going to ask you to give us financial information because we already have it,” he said.
Barber said the callers are using caller ID spoofing so people receiving the calls are not able to trace the numbers. The numbers that have been showing up are legitimate businesses, she said, some of them in Idaho and Florida.
Fisher said this type of scam is not unusual. “That’s why it’s important to get the word out,” he said.
Barber said about 10 customers from each of F&M’s 11 branches have reported receiving calls.
People who have received a call and given out their debit/ATM card numbers should call the number on back to report stolen cards so they can’t be used.
See more details in Saturday’s Salisbury Post.
Contact Kathy Chaffin at 704-797-7683.