Banks wants you to be on alert for scams this holiday season, and they're educating the public with a creative campaign: An interactive quiz to test your knowledge.
So, when you're home with family this Thanksgiving holiday, strike up a little friendly competition and see how each of you stack up.
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Each year, millions of Americans fall victim to fraudulent emails or text messages that appear to come from a legitimate organizations. According to the Federal Trade Commission, consumers lost over $10 billion dollars to phishing scams in 2023.
"They've gotten really good at spoofing banks' names, images, likenesses and phone numbers," said Paul Benda, with the American Bankers Association.
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That's why several banks have partnered with the ABA to educate consumers about the persistent threat of phishing scams through their Banks Never Ask That campaign.
"The idea was to use humor to try to educate consumers on what banks will and won't ask," Benda said.
The initiative aims to make people aware of misleading communications apparently coming from banks asking for sensitive information using creative videos and online games.
"People just need to recognize, if anyone's pressuring you to make a decision or to act quickly, it's likely a scam," explained Benda. "This can happen either with a message, a fake fraud alert that tries to copy your bank … the best thing is you only know who you're talking to when you initiate that conversation."
Benda said the campaign has reached millions of consumers across the country and has even helped someone from sending thousands of dollars to a scammer.
"We got a report from bank about a customer they had who was actually waiting in the teller line and they were looping some of our YouTube videos that are funny, kind of explaining the scam and then some different scam tips would come in between there. And the customer actually recognized that he was being part of a scam," Benda said.
For more information about the campaign, visit banksneveraskthat.com.
