Andy Cohen. Ralph Bavaro/BRAVO via Getty Images
- Andy Cohen said he recently fell for a scam that gave fraudsters access to his bank account.
- There’s a number of red flags he should’ve noticed throughout the scam.
- Here’s how to avoid the same thing happening to you.
We all may think we’re savvy enough to avoid getting scammed, but some fraudsters have become so sophisticated that they can fool even the best of us.
That’s what happened to TV personality Andy Cohen, who has opened up about falling for an imposter scam.
Cohen explained to the TODAY show on Wednesday that it all started when he lost his debit card and got an email purporting to be from his bank’s fraud alert. He clicked the link included in the email, which sent him to a sign-in page for his bank, Cohen told TODAY. After Cohen signed in, he was asked for his Apple ID, which he recognized as a scam, so he didn’t provide it.
But it was too late — the fraudsters already had his information, he said.
When Cohen got a text the next day from his bank, he assumed it was real, he told TODAY.
He then got on the phone with someone he thought was from his bank, who wanted to review his recent charges. Cohen said he spoke to them for over an hour, even giving them codes they had sent to his phone and getting tricked into allowing call forwarding.
After that, when his actual bank called him, it would get forwarded to the scammers.
Ultimately, Cohen said he lost “a lot of money” from wire transfers the scammers had initiated from his account with his unknowing help.
Red flags Cohen missed, and how you can protect yourself
Here are several red flags Cohen missed and how to protect yourself from becoming a scammer’s next prey.
First, he should’ve looked at the actual email address the original email was coming from to avoid getting “spoofed.”
“Even though it may say the name of your bank, if you click on it, you can see that it’s not at your bank dot-com,” Cohen said, according to TODAY.
Second, it’s best to avoid clicking links provided in emails entirely, especially if you haven’t verified the email is coming from who it says it is. It’s always safer to just visit the actual site through your web browser.
Then, when Cohen was asked for his Apple ID, he should’ve immediately realized that he had already given the scammers his information when he signed into his account from the link they provided. He could have called up his bank and reported this, possibly preventing the scam from going even further.
Next, Cohen could have Googled the phone number that his bank supposedly texted and called him from to see if it really was his bank. And note, most banks will not text customers; if they do, they won’t ask for personal information that way.
Also, Cohen should have been more suspicious about the codes the scammers were sending him that he was reading back to them.
Finally, Cohen should have reported the entire incident to his bank — by calling them directly — when he realized that call-forwarding had been set up on his phone.
There are many things you can do to avoid becoming a victim of debit card fraud like Cohen, but above all, always be very suspicious.
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