Bank at home scam

Front door scammer pretends to be someone from the bank

A fake bank employee will come to your home to supposedly secure your bank account with you or to collect your debit card or login device and your PIN code. Your bank will never ask for your PIN, debit card or login device and will never collect it from you!

What is home bank scam?

A scammer calls you and pretends to be someone from your bank. The phone number the scammer is calling you from may be your bank’s real number, but it isn’t. This is called spoofing .

The fake bank employee first scares you with an excuse by saying, for example, that a suspicious large payment has been made from your bank account, that your computer is no longer safe

or that your debit card or login device needs to be replaced. Then the fake bank employee tells you that someone from the bank has to come to your home to solve the problems or to collect your debit card or login device. You cannot come to a bank branch yourself, supposedly because of corona or for another reason.

Finally, a fake bank employee will indeed come to your home to supposedly secure your bank account with you or to collect your debit card or login device and your PIN code. The scammer at the front door can pose as a care coach, senior coach or bank courier, among other things.

Sometimes the scammer asks that you change your PIN code yourself via a website. The scammer also often asks that you cut your bank card yourself first. Your bank will never ask you to do this either. In reality, the scammers can rob your bank account. They do this via a computer brought along, on your own computer or with your debit card or login device and PIN code.

If the payment chip (the gold-colored square on your card) is not cut in half, a scammer with a cut payment card can still use internet banking or withdraw money at an ATM.

The scammer often knows a lot of personal, confidential information about you, even the current balance in your bank account and the last payments you made. This will allow the scammer to convince you that you are speaking to a real bank employee. They may also have previously tricked you into accessing your bank and payment details through so-called phishing .

What can you do yourself?

If your bank calls you unsolicited and unexpectedly and you need to take action quickly (for example to secure your money), ask for the name and personnel number of the employee. Hang up as soon as you have noted down the name and employee number. Don’t be fooled into thinking it would be a very urgent emergency. Then call your bank back yourself via a public, official telephone number that you have looked up yourself, for example via your bank’s website, online banking, in your bank’s mobile app or on a bank statement.

Never call your bank back on a phone number that you have received via text message, WhatsApp, email or that has been previously communicated to you over the phone. The caller may have been a scammer and a text message may have been forged.

When a scammer calls you, it may appear to be from your bank’s official phone number. Fortunately, when you call the official telephone number of your bank, you will always get your real bank on the line.

Some banks do offer the possibility to help you with your banking at home, for example because you have difficulty walking. You have to call your bank for that yourself and you have to ask for it yourself. Your bank will never call you unsolicited and unexpectedly just to offer you this.

If your bank card or login device needs to be replaced for whatever reason, you must destroy and dispose of it yourself after you have first received a new copy from your bank. Before you throw away your debit card, it is best to cut it yourself, always right through the gold-colored payment chip. Only when you cut right through the payment chip, your debit card can no longer be used.

What do banks never do?

• Employees of Dutch banks never come to your home to arrange your banking affairs or to collect something, if you have not asked for this yourself.
• They also never ask you to send or hand over your debit card or login device.
• Nor do banks ask you to provide or change your pin code, 5-digit identification code and response codes from your login device, not even via a website. Your bank card, login device and PIN are all strictly personal. You should never send it or hand it over to anyone, not even your bank. As soon as someone asks you for one of these details, you can be sure that it is a scammer.
• Also, they never ask you to transfer money, not even through a link in an email or text.
• Finally, they never ask you to log in immediately in the banking app or internet banking.

Also read everything about phishing .