One of my biggest duties as a bank teller is to make sure the customer always has access to their money, but more importantly, that they don’t lose it to those who are constantly trying to take it away, aka, the scammers. Through my 9 years as a bank teller, I have seen it all from the heartbreak of customers who have lost money to scammers (even their own family who scammed them!) to also having stopped scams from happening to my institution’s customers.
The news story I’m getting ready to talk about is near and dear to my heart because it talks about a bank teller stopping a scam in progress and saving a lady from possibly losing thousands of dollars. I will talk about what this particular teller did, what I would’ve done had it been myself, and tips that the customer could’ve followed to realize that the phone call they received was a scam from the get go.
Bank Teller Saves Woman From Losing Money
This particular news story comes out of Clay County Missouri. A woman went to the bank to withdraw money from her bank account and spoke directly to a teller to make that happen. Now the news story doesn’t give a lot of details of how the teller was able to determine that this particular customer is being scammed, but my guess is that her demeanor may have seemed off or the type of cash withdrawal she was requesting is not typically a normal type of transaction that she conducts at the bank. Whatever it was, the teller was able to quickly figure out she was being scammed.
What the teller did is slide a note to the customer stating that she is being scammed and that the transaction would not be continued. The customer, thankfully, disconnected the call and called the Sheriff’s Department. She definitely did the right thing and that County’s Sheriff’s deputy thanked the teller from preventing the woman from going through with the transaction to where she could’ve possibly lost thousands of dollars.
While the news article isn’t very long, I’m happy that the news reported this because most of the time, we see news articles of people losing lots of money to scammers. In this case, it had a happy ending with a scammer being stopped in their tracks thanks to the actions of the bank teller. There needs to be more news stories like this so people can what happens at a bank and how tellers and other employees are trained to spot potential scams that their customers might be falling for. Now what would I have done if I were in that particular teller’s place? I’ll talk about that next.
My Bank Teller Experience
Now as I mentioned earlier, I’m a bank teller with 9 years of experience so this is what I would’ve done if I were confronting that customer at the teller line. First of all, if she asked to withdraw thousands of dollars from her checking account, I would’ve paid attention to her deamenor. Does she seem fidgety or nervous? Does she keep looking down at her phone or purse where her phone could be? For me, those are tell-tale signs that something is amiss.
Secondly, if this is a well known customer, I would’ve looked at her account and transactions in the system that I use and look at a few different things. Does she normally do large withdrawals like this? How long has she been a customer? Do I need approval or a second set of eyes to look at this as well?
You might be wondering why I mentioned about needing to get approval to withdraw money from a customer’s account. A lot of banks and other financial institutions will usually place limits on the amount of money a teller can transact at any one time to try and mitigate risk or loss to the bank and customer. Now different levels of tellers will have different limits set. Since I’m the highest teller level at my specific institution, I have the highest transaction limit for a teller at my bank, but there are still limits I have to go by. If something is higher than my limit, I usually will have to get approval by a banker or manager. They will either approve or deny the transaction or limit it in a certain way based on some of the factors I had mentioned above.
Now in this case, the news article said that the woman was requesting thousands of dollars to be withdrawn from her account. I more than likely would’ve had to get approval for that type of withdrawal or if I noticed something seemed off about her request and I didn’t feel comfortable with it, I certainly would’ve gotten a second of set of eyes on it, either from another teller or a banker or manager if one is available.
Based on all of that, I more than likely would’ve done what this particular teller did and slid the customer a note saying something similar to what was on it and shutting that scam down. I always have to be very vigilant as a teller and do what I can to keep our customers from becoming a victim to scams. Sometimes I’m not always successful in stopping them especially if a customer is not forthcoming about their intended purposes for the money. I know a lot of people may think it is intrusive that tellers ask what they are using certain amounts of money for, but it’s not that we are trying to be nosey, it’s to ensure that you’re not falling prey to something that isn’t legitimate and where you will permanetly lose that money. Now that you know what I would’ve done as a teller, what are some things the customer could’ve done to notice that this was a scam from the beginning? I will talk about that next.
How The Customer Missed the Signs of Being Scammed
In a previous article, I’ve talked about some tactics scammers will use to make you become their next victims. I haven’t talked a lot about phone scams yet, but they are just as prevalent as other types of scams. The news article said that the lady was talking to a scammer over the phone, but it doesn’t say what specific scam the scammer was using to deceive her. It could’ve been a jury duty scam, IRS scam, or law enforcement scam. One thing all three of those scams have in common is that they want to cause you fear and worry.
The purpose of these scams is to get you to act out emotionally so that way you’re not thinking clearly. More than likely in this case, the scammer told the customer that she had to act quickly or something was going to happen to her. The scammer could’ve said there is a warrant out for her arrest and that if she didn’t act quickly, she would be arrested. The scammer will say that you have to act now to avoid a bad situation. This is a tell-tale sign that it’s a scam.
If the customer would’ve just disconnected the call with the scammer and called the sheriff’s office in the first place, she more than likely would’ve realized she really didn’t have any kind of warrant out for her arrest and they would’ve informed her that they would’ve never contacted her in that way or asked for money to avoid arrest the way this scammer could’ve possibly done.
Speaking of asking for money, scammers of this type will usually tell you specific things you need to do with the money from your bank account. A lot of times they will either tell you to buy gift cards, withdraw the cash from your account and deposit it into a Bitcoin (cryptocurrency) ATM, or even wire money to a specific place. That is one of the biggest signs that the person on the other end of the phone is trying to scam you because a legitimate place will NEVER ask you to do those things with your money to try and avoid whatever it is they are accusing you of. If this customer would’ve thought that through, she could’ve avoided a trip to the bank. If you want to read the news story for yourself, you can click here.