Fort Myers woman avoids falling for bank impersonation scam after seeing these red flags

A Fort Myers woman avoided a costly scam after questioning the legitimacy of a phone call from someone claiming to be a bank representative. "I pick up the phone, and he sounds like he's from the bank. He's very professional," the woman said. "He says that someone, an unknown person, tried to access my online banking using an iPhone 16." The woman, who requested anonymity due to fear from the incident, said the caller transferred her to an associate who also sounded professional. "He starts to tell me the instructions that he wants me to follow, and he asks me if I have an Apple Wallet on my phone," she said. She began to notice red flags during the call. "That was my second red flag, third red flag," she said. "He said, 'How about if I contact the bank and I call you back?'" The caller discouraged her from contacting the bank, claiming, "Some of the bank managers are involved in this, so contacting the bank may not be the best route." Bank of America warns that scammers often create a sense of urgency and use unusual payment methods. Technology experts say faking a caller ID is relatively easy. "There was a much more of a one-to-one relationship once upon a time," said John Joyce of CRS Technology Consultants. "Now that it's all internet-based and called VoIP or voice over IP, basically, there were these national registers, these name databases that do their best to correlate a box of numbers to the name that they allege to be." The woman said she wanted to share her experience to help others avoid falling victim to similar scams. "I was afraid that the guy — they were really good and they sounded very professional. And if I was about to fall for it, I imagine there's probably a lot of people that will," she said. Experts with Bank of America recommend hanging up immediately if you suspect a scam and contacting your bank directly by calling the phone number on the back of your card. DOWNLOAD the free Gulf Coast News app for your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app to stream news, entertainment, and original programming on your TV.