FBI Issues Warning to People Who Receive Payroll Direct Deposits

These days, it seems like there’s a new scammer around every corner just waiting to defraud you of your cash! Over the years, we’ve alerted you to a bunch of different tricky schemes, for example, the curb-painting swindle, the age-old auto service scam, and, of course, travel scams damaging enough to ruin your entire vacation.

Yep, there certainly are a lot of reasons out why we should all be vigilant about protecting our money, but now we have to worry that our money might not even be able to STAY in our bank account in the first place!

In a recently released public service announcement from the offices of the FBI, the agency says that any employees who receive their paycheck via direct deposit might be in danger of unwittingly giving up their bank info.

Apparently, crooks are going around, masquerading as HR departments and contacting the employees of the company in which they are pretending to be employed. Once a scammer makes contact, they will then say that the bank info needs to updated in the system and they will ask a series of very sensitive financial questions.

Of course, this scam works especially well on those working in large companies where the true members of the HR department might not be known well or even at all.

In its release, the FBI supplied some tips to help employers skirt this scam, like educating employees on the issue, developing a more secure payroll infrastructure, and employee log-in monitoring.

To learn even more about this scam and how you can protect yourself from it, be sure to watch the video below. Be careful with that cash, folks!

What’s your take on this new, very sneaky scam? Have you ever fallen victim to it? If so, what happened? How do you protect yourself from scammers?