FAIRMONT – With multiple variants of fraud and scams targeting people’s wallets, banks are keeping a vigilant eye out and keeping themselves informed on the latest.

Profinium Vice President of Information Technology, Jason Jones, said the most common ones they see are for fraudulent charges. The bank has also seen a rise in impersonation scams, where individuals claim to be bank employees and use legitimate employee names and realistic email addresses.

“They’ll look at LinkedIn, see who works where,” he said. “They’ll look at social media. Sometimes they’ll just know in the community. Social media is the biggest one. If you don’t have your social media locked down, they may be able to look at that and go, ‘Oh, I see this person works at this bank, so I can pretend to be that person and call that bank.’ Caller ID is very easy to spoof.”

With these and other common scams, like claiming money is waiting for you, Jones said it is important not give in to their pressure.

“Scammers are always trying to create a sense of urgency because they know anything involving your money is going to make you react,” he said. “When you get something that is an alert or looks like an alert, take a moment, think about it. Does it make sense? If you’re still not sure, wait on it. Contact the bank by calling the main number or communicating through the chat in online banking.”

While helping yourself is important when it comes to scams, Jones said it is also important to make sure you verify what you’re sending others to make sure they don’t become susceptible to scams.

“Especially in social media, somebody will share stuff they don’t know,” he said. “Before you share something on social media, look it up, do a little research and figure out is it legitimate, yes or no, before you start sharing that to the rest of your friends and family.”

There are also some new scams coming out that could catch people unawares. Jones said now they can come from searches and ads on the internet.

“We’re seeing a lot of fraud where somebody clicks an ad on Facebook or social media, and they think it’s a legitimate company,” he said. “It turns out not to be. You’re starting to see some of those search results get more fraudulent things and not as good results. I’ve heard of like AI (artificial intelligence) searches getting poisoned results occasionally.”

To stay up-to-date on fraud and scams, Jones said they monitor what people are reporting to them and keep in touch with several cybersecurity organizations that provide constant updates.

In instances of fraudulent activity involving Profinium users, Jones said they urge those affected to report it so they can track it and warn other customers if necessary.

“We can lock your internet banking account,” he said. “We can put holds in your accounts to make sure nothing’s going through. We can help you set up alerts on your account, so if something is out of the ordinary, our online banking will give you an alert to let you know that something’s going through your account.”

Bank Midwest Fraud Prevention Manager, Stacie Wolter, said they receive 40 to 50 reports of scams a month, ranging from debit card fraud, imposter scams, romance scams and everything in between. She said currently, tech support scams are what they are seeing most often.

“Your computer might appear to be acting up, and then it looks like there’s a phone number to call,” Wolter said. “It’s a fictitious number, but you don’t realize that. When you call it, you get an imposter on the line that leads you down a rabbit hole. You think you’re talking to one person and you’re actually being scammed.”

It hasn’t always been this many, either. With AI, Wolter said fraud attempts are getting more sophisticated.

“AI is really increasing the fraud attempts,” she said. “It’s not all AI; fraud itself is just becoming more sophisticated. It’s everywhere. It’s more prevalent now than it used to be. We used to be able to trust phone calls or emails, and now it’s the opposite. We really can’t trust anything we get in our phone, emails or even phone calls.”

If you suspect someone is attempting to defraud or scam you, Wolter said trust that gut feeling and never open a link or phone number sent by text message or email.

“If it is a site or source that you recognize, contact them through a trusted number,” she said. “Otherwise, delete it and let it go to your deleted items. If you get a phone number claiming to be from your bank, financial institution, etc, and you weren’t expecting that call or they’re claiming something’s suspicious and they’re asking you questions, tell them that you will call them right back, hang up and call your financial institution on a trusted number.”

To help those affected at Bank Midwest by scams, Wolter said they have their own fraud prevention department and even offer seminars for local citizens.

“We are primarily focused on helping our clients and community members who are affected by scams or have just general questions,” she said. “We are a resource. We do help stop whatever scam they’re going through at the time. We walk them through everything, step by step.”