How to protect yourself from call and fixed term deposit scams

Be careful when searching for call and fixed term deposits with good conditions. Scammers commonly advertise seemingly excellent interest rates on websites that look very convincing. This article explains how to recognise fraudulent offers and protect yourself from scams.

Lots of people start with search engines or price comparison portals, where ads or internet sites from legitimate banks can be counterfeited with astonishing accuracy. Once the scammers have your person-al data, they often contact you via telephone or messenger and try to pressure you into making a quick decision. The goal is to get you to act without thinking and reveal personal information or transfer money to them.

Unusually high interest rates can be a warning sign for fraud. And you could end up losing everything, instead of raking in exceptional profits. But even market interest rates could be advertised on fraudu-lent sites. Don’t rely on the interest rates alone to identify a scam. There are other things to look out for.

Tips on how to protect yourself

• Examine the website itself. Go directly to the bank’s website, never click on links from ads or e-mails. Carefully check the website’s legal notice, contact information and web address. Even small variations in spelling could indicate fraud.
   
• The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) provides information on fraud and publishes warnings about illegal transactions, identity theft and scams. The German consumer organisa-tion, Stiftung Warentest, also provides information about dubious investment offers on its In-vestment Warning List (in German only).
   
• Scammers often seek to put pressure on their victims, and will push you to make a decision as soon as possible, or call you multiple times. Don’t give in to the pressure: take the time you need to examine every offer in detail. Be particularly cautious if you receive an unscheduled call. If in doubt, hang up. Call the bank using their official number in order to ensure you are speak-ing with the real institution.
   
• If your only contact takes place over messenger or e-mails from generic e-mail addresses, that’s suspicious, as contact should come from the bank’s official internet domain. And it’s very important to know that reputable banks will never ask for your PIN, TAN or other login details for your online banking account over the phone.
   
• Bank accounts can only be opened once you have verified your identity. In Germany, this is done at the bank, via an online identity verification service or using Postident or Videoident. Photos of your ID or selfies are never sufficient.
   
• If you receive a message asking you to transfer money to a new time deposit account but didn’t open the account yourself, never transfer any money. The scammers are trying to con-vince you that the account and associated IBAN is a time deposit account that you own, but in fact it is in their name.
   
• This scam often uses accounts with a foreign bank: check the IBAN for the country code (the German country code is DE). Scammers sometimes use foreign accounts because cross-border criminal investigations are usually more difficult and have less chance of success.