Put the phone down and call the bank yourself
A sentence ready, two numbers worth keeping, and you will have already lived through one of these calls in complete safety.
A message can be re-read, put down, shown to somebody. A call gives none of that. The pleasant person on the other end has had this conversation four hundred times.
Key points
- The number on your screen can be forged, including your bank’s own
- No genuine caller asks for a code, a password, or that you move money
- “I am going to put the phone down and call the number on my card” ends any call safely
- the FTC — the national place to report fraud.
What to remember
- The moment worth rehearsing is the first: putting the telephone down while somebody is speaking.
- Real organizations send you toward other people. Fraud steers you away from them.
- Say it, then do it, however far into the call you are: “I am going to put the phone down and call you back on the number on my card.” Someone real agrees. A fraudster finds a reason why you cannot.
Try this
Put the number from the back of your card into your phone’s contacts now, saved as Bank — safe number, while nothing is wrong.
Practice: Put the phone down and call the bank yourself. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.