Common Consumer Fraud Scams

Scammers are impersonating law enforcement officers, such as police officers, sheriff’s deputies, or other government officials and calling people to demand money. They may claim you missed jury duty, have an outstanding warrant, or failed to appear in court. They then demand immediate payment to avoid arrest or legal action.

In a newer version of this scam, the fraudster may request a welfare check at your home while keeping you on the phone. If real police officers arrive at your door to perform the welfare check, the scammer hopes you will believe their story is legitimate and feel pressured to send money.

Scammers often make the call appear to come from a local law enforcement agency by using fake caller ID information. They may even use the names of real officers or government employees to sound convincing.

Common Warning Signs

• The caller claims you will be arrested unless you pay immediately.
• They tell you not to hang up or speak to anyone else.
• They demand payment using gift cards, cryptocurrency, wire transfers, or cash.
• The caller says the matter is urgent and tries to make you panic.
• Police unexpectedly arrive at your home while you are on the phone with the caller.

How to Protect Yourself

• Hang up immediately if someone demands money while claiming to be law enforcement.
• Never send money or share personal information with an unexpected caller.
• If you are concerned the call might be legitimate, contact the agency directly using a phone number from its official website.
• If officers arrive for a welfare check, explain that you received a suspicious call and ask them to verify the situation.
• Report the scam to local law enforcement and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Remember: Real law enforcement agencies do not call and demand payment, threaten immediate arrest over the phone, or request payment by gift card, cryptocurrency, wire transfer, or cash.

Scammers are using a technique called Caller ID Spoofing to pose as the PlainsCapital Bank Fraud Department. These scammers are faking their phone number and caller ID information to make it appear as though they are calling from PlainsCapital.

Please be aware: The PlainsCapital Bank Fraud team will NEVER ask you for your passcode or security code through an unsolicited phone call.

If you receive a suspicious or unsolicited call claiming to be from our Fraud department, hang up and call us back directly. Our Fraud department can be reached at 214.525.4699, or you can call your local PlainsCapital Bank branch and ask to be transferred to the Fraud Department.

For more information on Fraud and how to protect yourself, visit our Fraud Resource Center.

The brushing scam occurs when a scammer infiltrates a victim’s phone to collect personal information and open accounts in the victim’s name.

The fraudster will use these imposter accounts to purchase items using a third-party seller like Amazon or eBay. Their goal is to give the impression that the recipient is a verified buyer and then write a fake positive review in the victim’s name. These fake reviews help to fraudulently boost or inflate the products’ ratings and give credibility to their fake brand.

The package will be addressed to the person’s residence but may not have a return address or may have the return address of a retailer or international seller.

While receiving free items in the mail may appear to be a victimless crime, the reality is your personal information may be compromised. Once scammers obtain your information, they will often use it for other illicit activities outside of the brushing scam.

What should I do if I receive a package I did not order?

• Do not scan any QR codes on the packaging or packing slip.
  • This could lead to a malicious site that steals additional personal information or downloads malware to your device.
• Throw it away, keep it, or return to sender.
  • If the package has a return address and is unopened, you may write “RETURN TO SENDER” and USPS will return it at no charge to you.
• Change your account passwords. Your personal accounts may have been compromised.
• Closely monitor your credit reports and bank statements to ensure there are no fraudulent charges or activity.

If you have been a victim of fraud and believe your banking information might be at risk, report it to your bank’s Fraud Department. PlainsCapital’s Fraud Department can be reached at 214.525.4699.

A smishing scam has recently reappeared on phones across the U.S. demanding money from consumers for fake unpaid tolls. The texts come from fraudsters impersonating the toll service in your state. The message might include a link that resembles the toll service’s website. The goal of this scam is to collect your personal or banking information in order to make unauthorized payments to the fraudster or to convince you to make the payment yourself. Some fake unpaid toll alerts may be more obvious than others. If you get a text claiming to be from the toll service in a state you haven’t visited recently or ever, you are safe to assume it is fake. Spelling errors or links that don’t match the legitimate toll service website are also red flags to look for.

The exact wording of a fraudulent toll road text will vary. But it will likely be similar to the following: You have an unpaid toll bill on your account. To avoid late fees, pay within 12 hours or the late fees will be increased and reported to the DMV. Thank you for your cooperation and have a pleasant holiday.

Some may ask you to copy and paste a link into your browser instead of clicking it directly. An example text reads as follows: Please reply Y, then exit the text message and open it again to activate the link, or copy the link into your Safari browser and open it.

If you receive a text message demanding money for an unpaid toll:

• Do NOT reply to the message.
• Do NOT click the link in the text. Instead visit the legitimate toll service website directly using your browser to check your account balance. You can also contact the toll service’s customer service phone number provided on their website.
• Report the text as spam or junk, then delete the message.
• If you did click the link or provide any information to the sender, contact your bank’s Fraud Department immediately and report the incident.

The goal of the imposter scam is to obtain sensitive information about you and your financial accounts. Fraudsters will contact you and claim to represent the Bank’s Fraud Department.  You might receive a call, text, or email saying there is suspected fraud involving your account. The fraudster will ask for information to “verify” that you are the account holder. If they successfully obtain your personal information or if you grant them access to your computer, the fraudster could access your Online Banking account and from there initiate wire transfers, change your contact information, link external accounts, and more.  They might even use your personal information to impersonate you to the Bank or other merchants. Keep in mind that fraudsters might claim to be from a known, large company, such as Amazon, LifeLock, Microsoft, for example.

It is very important that you do not give your account information to anyone over the phone or text or email. The Bank and the Fraud Department will never ask you for:

• Your login information
• Your full debit card number with expiration date and CVV number
• Your FULL account number (the Bank will only ask you to verify the last 4 digits of your account number)
• One-time passcodes
• Your passcode (without giving you a hint)

If you suspect that you are talking to a fraudster, you should hang up the phone or stop replying to their texts and emails. Call PlainsCapital Bank (866.762.8392) and ask to be transferred to the Fraud Department. If you believe you may have given sensitive information to a fraudster, contact your account officer to report the incident.

This scam is similar to the overpayment scam except, in this case, the scammer does not send a check to the victim. Fraudsters will contact you, usually over text or email, claiming to be a familiar company (ex. Amazon, Apple, Norton Life Lock). The scammer will claim that the company issued a refund, but the payment was an excess amount of money.

The scammer will request remote access to your computer and advise you to log into your online banking account in order to verify the overpayment. Then the scammer is able to make transactions from your account. They will transfer funds from other accounts you are a signer on to make it appear as if an overpayment was made (for example, transferring $1,000 from a savings account to a checking account). Then you will be asked to wire out money to the scammer to correct the overpayment.

In another version of this scam, fraudsters will contact you via text or email claiming there is fraud on your account. The scammer will request remote access to your computer and then advise you to log into online banking. Once they have access, the fraudster will put up a fake page so you cannot see what they are doing and secretly transfer money out of your account via Zelle®. If the scammer makes a transfer while they have access to your computer and online banking, it will not appear to be suspicious activity to the bank, as it is originating from your normal IP address (your device).

You should NEVER grant someone access to your personal computer when you are logged into your Online Banking account.

• If someone asks you to grant them access, you should hang up and call the company back directly at a phone number known to you to verify the story you were provided.
• Remember, if you conduct the wire request to the bank directly, and these funds are sent out to the scammer, it is very difficult to recover those funds. More than likely, you would not get these funds back.​​​

In a smishing scam, fraudsters send a linkless text message claiming there’s been a bank transfer from your account. The message usually asks if you’ve authorized the transaction from your debit card, through Zelle, or even from a retailer. Anyone who answers the ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question in the text message receives a phone call almost immediately after. The person calling claims to be from your bank’s fraud department to help secure your account. They then ask you for your online banking username and tell you to read back the passcode sent to you via text or email. When the fraudster enters your username into your banking website, he/she initiates the “forgot password” feature, which generates this passcode text message. By giving out this passcode, you allow the fraudster to reset your password and successfully gain access to your account without your knowledge.

In this scam, fraudsters send a text message posing as your financial institution, i.e., PlainsCapital Bank. The text claims to be “urgent” and falsely says your debit card account is locked. They provide a phone number to call to “unlock the card.” Cardholders who call the number provided reach an automated menu with a computerized voice. They are then asked to provide their personal card information—full card number, expiration date, security code on the back of the card, and their PIN. The fraudster then tells the customer they will receive a code via text message on their phone, and they are to give that code to the fraudster. By giving out this code, the fraudster now has a digital version of the customer’s debit card on their own phone.

This scam first surfaced back in 2019, but fraudsters are back trying it again. It starts with an unsolicited phone call from a random number. The person calling claims to be a law enforcement agent, usually with the FBI. The “agent” says your name is tied to a rental car in Texas found with blood and cocaine inside. You’re asked to give your Social Security number and financial account information. Another version of the scam involves a person calling claiming to be a Social Security Administration representative. They say, in addition to a rental car with blood and cocaine, they have found an offshore account in your name with a large amount of cash. You are then told your Social Security benefits will be suspended if you do not provide your personal information, including your Social Security number and financial account information.

The opportunity to work from home is becoming a very popular and an attractive option for many. As the interest increases, so do the opportunities to be conned with jobs that pay “big financial rewards.” Although there are many legitimate work from home jobs, these schemes do not guarantee a regular salary and almost always require an “up-front” investment.

During a romance scam, the victim is courted online for some time before the scam starts. At first, the criminal is very interested in the victim and will make many promises. After a period of time, they will ask the victim for help, either due to an illness, accident, job loss, family emergency, or their bank accounts have been frozen for some unknown reason. Once a small amount is sent they will ask for larger amounts and become very demanding.

In this scam, the victim may be selling goods in a marketplace, over the internet, or through a trade site. The buyer will send a cashier’s check for the goods, but the amount will be incorrect, normally for a much larger amount then the goods were sold for. The victim will be asked to deposit the check and then wire the extra funds back to the buyer. After the victim wires out the funds, the deposited check will charge back as fraud. The victim is out the amount that was wired out and will never receive back the merchandise the criminal “purchased” from them.

Card Cracking begins with a criminal posting on Facebook or another social media site, asking if someone would like to make easy money. The victim is advised to open a bank account (if they don’t already have one) and then give the scammer the debit card for the account. The scammer will then make fraudulent deposits into the victim’s account and withdraw funds via the ATM. The account holder is advised they will get to keep some of the cash from the deposits and they are to claim their card was lost or stolen. The scammer tells the account holder there is nothing the bank can do to them as they did not make the fraudulent deposit.

Skimming is a common method used by fraudsters to obtain credit card or debit card information. The “skimmer” device is a small tool with a mag-stripe reader that stores card information. Generally, the card is swiped through the skimmer when making an ATM withdrawal or a purchase at a location where the consumer inserts their card into a machine. The information obtained is used to create a counterfeit card or is sold to other fraudsters.

This type of scam is a criminal activity that uses fraudulent techniques to trick you into providing personal information. These techniques include the use of fake emails, phone calls, and/or websites posing as legitimate and trusted organizations to fool you into divulging personal financial information that is then used to commit identity theft or other types of fraud.

This scam is used in the same manner as Phishing; however, the contact is made by text messages instead of an email or phone. The victim is asked to provide their personal information.

The Mystery Shopper scam is similar to the “Work from Home” scam. The victim is approached to earn money for little to no work. They receive a letter and check in the mail asking them to deposit the check, withdraw cash, and then shop at the merchant stated in the letter. One of the merchants will be a money service business (Western Union, Money Gram, or similar business) and the victim will be directed to wire funds out, then report on the service they received while conducting the wire. As with other scams, the victim is advised to keep a small amount of the funds as well as the items they purchased. However, the check deposited charges back as fraud and the victim is out the funds.