WOODWAY, Texas (KXXV) — “They might reach out to you in many different ways. It could be a phone call, could be a text message, it could be an email,” BBB El Paso marketing manager Carlos Pedrueza said. “It could be extremely dangerous, especially for a bank account."
The Better Business Bureau is warning our neighbors to stay alert since new scams pop up every day.
In fact, 25 News’ Kadence MaKenna is going through it right now.
MaKenna fell victim after someone called her pretending to be a bank representative— getting all of her personal information and money.
“Imposter scams are happening all the time and right now it's getting worse because of AI,” Pedrueza said.
But it's happening to our neighbors, too.
“So, during the holidays, we always have kind of a small influx of crime in reference to fraud,” Woodway Public Safety Department’s Griffin Kenneaster said. “Specifically, here recently, we've had a couple calls for bank jugging and a couple calls for Facebook fraud,”
Bank jugging happens when someone leaves the bank with money, criminals watch and proceed to rob you.
Facebook Marketplace scams happen when a user lists fake items for sale and accepts payment for them.
“Our recommendation is to be very, very wary and suspicious of all of these contacts that you get,” Pedrueza said. “If they are contacting you without you contacting them, that's a red flag,”
New technology is just making it more difficult to detect scams – as he warns 25 News that scammers can spoof the caller ID – making it look like a legitimate company is contacting you.
Your best protection?
“Never disclose anything, don't cooperate with them. Ignore unknown, untrusted senders,” Kenneaster said.
