Bank Impersonation Scams Blog From NJCCIC

Threat actors continue to research their targets, impersonate trusted entities, and initiate communications through email, phone calls, and SMS text messaging to convince them to take action, such as divulging information or transferring funds. In bank impersonation scams, threat actors seek personal information, account numbers, passwords, and PINs. If threat actors gain access to bank accounts, they can update personal and financial information. Additionally, they can set up fictitious travel notices or memos  to spend money outside the normal spending location and evade detection. Furthermore, threat actors will test accounts to see if they are being monitored. If threat actors perform a fraudulent transaction and the activity is not detected, they will perform additional transactions. Despite banks using Early Warning services to help fight bank fraud, bank impersonation scams are increasing. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) revealed that bank impersonation was the top reported text message scam in 2022, and reports of this scam increased nearly twentyfold since 2019. The most popular choices of major banks used in impersonation scams included Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Chase, and Citibank.
The NJCCIC observed multiple emails sent to New Jersey State employees attempting to lure potential victims with urgent bank account notifications to capture login credentials. In the example above, the email conveys a sense of legitimacy by using stolen Bank of America branding. However, upon further inspection, the display name is spoofed with “Bank of America Alert,” while the sender’s email address of iolevron5886[@]live[.]com is from a Microsoft Live.com account and not from a Bank of America domain. The purported account verification notification warns of temporarily limited account access due to unauthorized login attempts or billing failures.