Fraud Prevention Advice for Everyone

Being a victim of fraud is, unfortunately, common. And it’s often underreported because victims are ashamed and embarrassed about being victims. Protecting yourself is essential, but so is understanding what steps to take if and when fraud happens to you. These fraud prevention tips can help you be prepared in advance and also know what to do if you are a victim.

See Be Your Own Fraud Prevention Hero with Marc Evans for a complete transcript of the Easy Prey podcast episode.

Marc Evans is a fraud and financial crimes detective. He has been in law enforcement for thirteen years and spent the last six focused exclusively on fraud and financial crimes, where he has helped recover millions of dollars. He is also a Certified Fraud Examiner and training coordinator, so he does a lot of work training people how to investigate and combat fraud. Recently, he started the business Fraud Hero to do even more to help stop fraud and keep people from becoming victims.

Getting Into Fraud Prevention

Marc has always been passionate about fraud. He wanted to be a fraud detective even before he joined the department. Sometimes people are surprised that he didn’t want to investigate homicides or the “sexier” crimes, but Marc has always loved puzzles, and fraud felt like a puzzle. He loved figuring out how they did it and outsmarting smart criminals.

Marc credits part of this interest to the TV show White Collar. In the show, a white-collar criminal uses his expertise in various types of fraud to help the FBI catch other criminals, and Marc thought that sounded like fun. He talked to some people at the federal level about it, but decided that working with a local police department would be a better option.

The other part of his interest in fraud is that Marc was a victim. His identity was stolen, and it got to the point where it almost stopped him from joining law enforcement. He discovered it when reviewing his credit report in preparation for the background check process of getting hired. There was a delinquent account that he didn’t recognize. Marc had to get it fixed before he could join the department. The process of fixing it was challenging, and he realized how terrible it would be if someone couldn’t get their dream job because someone else was using their identity. Seeing it from the victim side of things just made him want to do more fraud prevention work.

The Current State of Fraud

Marc deals with all kinds of cases, from credit card fraud to money laundering to embezzlement to real estate. Anything to do with fraud, he has investigated. The biggest ones he’s seeing right now are social engineering tactics and impostor scams.

Social engineering includes tactics like phishing, smishing, baiting (providing a false but enticing offer to get people to click a link or install a software), and more. Social engineering strategies manipulate your emotions and behavior so you do something the criminal wants you to do.

Impostor scams are when the criminal pretends to be someone legitimate – like the government, law enforcement, or tech support – to get you to cooperate with their fraud. While some of these scammers are international, Marc also sees a lot of them locally. This is great from a law enforcement perspective. He can’t really go overseas to get a criminal, but if the fraudster is a local resident, then it’s much easier to get them and bring them to justice.

There are a lot of what Marc calls CEO or supervisor impostors right now. With these, criminals pretend to be someone higher up in the victim’s company and ask them to do something. Another one he’s seeing a lot of is bank impostors. These often occur because people just don’t know it can happen. Many victims he talked to had no idea scammers could spoof caller ID to look like the call is coming from their bank.

Bank Impersonation Scams

One thing Marc has seen from working in fraud prevention and investigation is how scams have evolved. Bank impersonation especially has gotten better. In the past, it used to be broad. The caller would say they were from “the bank” or “your bank” and try to get information from the victim to develop the story. Now when they call, they already know what bank you work with and other information.

[Scammers] are being more specific now … they’ll call and they already know [your] information.

Marc Evans

And it’s not just trying to get you to inadvertently give them access to your account or make a wire transfer, either. A lot of times, they want you to use cryptocurrency like Bitcoin. Or they may do something even more out of the ordinary, like asking you to buy gold and give it to someone. There have been cases in the news lately where fraudsters send couriers to pick up your credit or debit card. They claim that there’s been fraud on your account and you need to give them the card for secure disposal. In reality, they’ll empty your accounts, often within half an hour.

Money Mules in Bank Impersonation

Sometimes Marc gets calls from banks who have recognized a fraudulent transaction and have somebody there. Sometimes he’s able to show up in time to catch the criminal. If someone’s new to the scam world, they may not catch on, but experienced scammers know when a bank teller is being fishy or if a transaction is taking too long. If they get spooked, they will often leave. But generally they will leave their fake ID behind, which gives Marc a picture to use.

People think, “Oh, it’s fraud, I can get away with it.” No, you can’t hide forever. Eventually you’re going to get caught.

Marc Evans

Sometimes the people doing these transactions aren’t actually criminals. They may be unwilling participants, or not realize that they’re part of a scam. Often they will deny anything suspicious is going on. But through Marc’s scam prevention and investigation work, he’s found that most of the time, they know something is going on. Sometimes they do things like visit multiple bank branches and do transactions just under the $10,000 reporting threshold. That indicates they know something is suspicious about it.

Marc also sees young adults, often eighteen or nineteen years old, targeted for this. Someone reaches out to them on social media saying they could make some easy money by letting this person move money through their accounts. Even then, most young adults should recognize that this isn’t a normal request and there’s something suspicious about it. Even if they don’t know the details of what’s going on, most of the people doing this know there’s something strange going on.

The Recovery Process

Part of dealing with fraud prevention and investigation is also working with the recovery process. And how long the process takes depends on how long it takes you to report the fraud. Especially when the fraud is local, it’s a speed game. The faster you report it, the easier and faster it is for law enforcement to investigate and recover the funds.

When it comes to fraud cases … it’s a speed game. The faster you can get the report done, the easier it is for [law enforcement] to try to recover those funds.

Marc Evans

Once you report it to law enforcement, they can contact your bank and prove that it’s an actual fraud case. After that, it’s up to the bank to decide on doing a refund or not. But if you report it quick enough, they may be able to trace the transactions. And if law enforcement can get someone in custody quick enough, they may be able to get your money back.

This all depends on how fast you report. Marc has seen the money transferred to another account and withdrawn in fifteen minutes. This normally happens with organized groups. They may have someone waiting at the bank or an ATM to withdraw the money as soon as you send it. Less organized groups may take a day or two. But once that money is out of the account, it’s gone. Banks often won’t refund it if you did the transfer or it came from your account. Your chances of getting the money back decrease the longer you wait to report it.

If a couple of weeks go by since it’s happened, there’s a slim to none chance that that money is going to come back.

Marc Evans

Fraud Prevention and Prosecution

Fraud is the fastest-growing crime we’ve ever seen. For a lot of criminals, it’s about risk versus rewards. If you burgle a house, you could steal a TV that you can pawn for a few hundred dollars. But if you counterfeit a check, you could get $10,000. Which one would give you more time in jail if you got caught? Right now, it’s the burglary.

Many criminals also think that’s it’s just a financial crime, so nobody got hurt. But that’s not true. Somebody got hurt because they lost money. Maybe they can’t pay their bills or their rent. It hurts in the long run, but they don’t think about that.

Prosecutors are starting to push for changes in legislation and longer jail time. Understanding fraud and fraud prevention is a big part of that. Marc works with the District Attorney’s office a lot, and sometimes they ask him to explain fraud cases they don’t understand. When the attorneys understand fraud’s effects and how it happens, we start to see more legislation.

In Marc’s state, for example, they pushed for mail theft legislation. Stealing mail is a federal crime, but there isn’t the manpower on the federal level to investigate every case. And if you’re stealing mail, you’re looking for checks, IDs, credit cards, and other things that get mailed to people that they can use to commit fraud. Once the attorneys understood how big of a problem it was and what the consequences were, they pushed for legislation. Now mail theft is a state and local crime as well so it’s easier to prosecute.

The Challenges in Reporting

One of the big challenges in fraud prevention is under-reporting. Victims don’t report it because of shame and embarrassment. If you look at any fraud statistic, you can probably double or triple the numbers to get a better estimate. In 2023, total fraud losses in the US were about $10 billion. Marc guarantees it’s probably closer to $20-$30 billion actually lost.

When Marc talks to victims, he starts by trying to help them understand that they’re not alone. Fraud is a big world, and it happens to everyone. Marc has been a victim. Everyone has, to some extent. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve been tricked – they could have had their info revealed in a data breach. But if you’re a victim of fraud, you’re not alone.

If anybody tells you they haven’t been a victim of fraud to some extent, they’re lying.

Marc Evans

Education is a big part of fraud prevention. Many victims don’t share their experiences. People don’t understand how it happened. Or they assume that because they’re smart, it can’t happen to them. Some people don’t’ realize spoofing technology is out there. Spam texts and emails have gotten really good – especially with AI, scammers can write messages that look legitimate. And with scams with heavy emotional involvement, like romance scams, victims are often too embarrassed to say anything.

If you were defrauded, it’s not your fault. The same way Marc works as a detective and you have your profession, scammers treat committing fraud like a job. They study it and they’re good at it. Marc’s goal is to help victims understand they’re not alone and teach them what they can do to protect themselves in the future.

Those scammers study. That’s what they do for a living and they’re very good at it.

Marc Evans

Fraud Prevention through Education

As a detective, by the time Marc gets cases, it’s too late. The money is gone, the identity was stolen, someone had done something. About a year and a half ago, he and his wife decided there had to be something more they could do. So they got into fraud prevention education. Marc sees a lot of scams before they hit the news, and he uses his knowledge from dealing with scams to educate people before they become victims.

His company, Fraud Hero, teaches people to be their own fraud prevention hero. It offers steps to protect your credit and identity, red flags to watch for with scams, and more. Marc is currently working on building a course with everything you need to not be a victim. Sometimes people ask if he’s worried he’s going to put himself out of his detective job. But that’s the whole point. He wants to stop people from becoming victims in the first place instead of investigating after. He loves investigating, but if he could reduce it, that’s success.

The biggest problem in fraud prevention has always been a lack of information. Getting as much information as possible out to as many people as possible is his goal. The more people we can educate on how to fight fraud and not be a victim from the beginning, the better. If everyone knows how to spot the red flags, not to click links, to hang up when the bank calls and call the number on the back of their card instead, all of these little steps go a long way. If you can teach victims how to avoid being victims, the scammers will have a much harder time scamming.

Once you get rid of the victim, the scammers can’t scam anymore.

Marc Evans

Steps to Protect Yourself from Fraud

There are some easy steps you can take that will go a long way towards fraud prevention. Marc recommends everyone do these things. There’s an entire list on the Fraud Hero website. It can be a tedious process, and you don’t have to do it all at once, but it’s good to do. But if you only want to do a few to get started, these are Marc’s top recommendations.

Check Your Credit Report

Marc is shocked by how many people don’t monitor their credit on a regular basis. Your bank will give you a free copy of your credit report every year. AnnualCreditReport.com is a federally-authorized website that will give you your credit report weekly. This is especially important if you’re a victim of identity theft. Check it for accounts in your name that aren’t yours!

Set Up Account Alerts

Monitoring your bank accounts can help you spot fraudulent transactions right away. Marc has transaction alerts on every account that he has. He knows when he’s made a transaction and the alert is nothing to worry about. And that way, when someone calls and says there’s been fraud on your accounts, Marc can know that’s false because he didn’t get the notifications.

Use Informed Delivery

Yes, protecting your mail is part of fraud prevention! Sometimes criminals will steal your mail or have it forwarded somewhere else so they can get replacement credit or debit cards, IDs, or any other important documents that you have mailed to you. The United States Postal Service, FedEx, UPS, and most other delivery services have an informed delivery option that will let you know what mail you have coming. If it’s sensitive, you can make sure someone is there to get it immediately, and you can be aware right away if someone stole something from your mailbox.

Use a Digital Wallet

Marc has investigated enough credit card fraud that he thinks a digital wallet is essential. Something like Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, or PayPal will let you easily add your card and then tap your phone to pay. It doesn’t send your actual card number to the merchant, so your card number is safe. Plus it can make paying more convenient since you don’t actually need your card with you.

Fraud Prevention is an Ongoing Process

There’s no one-stop shop or service that can do it all. Fraud prevention isn’t a one-time thing. You have to keep at it. And it starts with awareness. You have to know what kind of frauds are out there, how they can happen, and what you can do to protect yourself.

Preventing fraud is an ongoing thing … but it all starts with the person knowing what could happen and what could be done to protect themselves.

Marc Evans

It’s also important to know what it does once it happens. You can report it to the FBI at ic3.gov, the FTC are reportfraud.ftc.gov, contact your local police department, and contact your bank. Marc recommends doing all four. Lots of banks actually require a police report to prove it’s actually fraud.

Most important, be vigilant. You can’t prevent fraud if you don’t know it’s out there. The best thing you can do is educate yourself, then reach out to others. If it happened to you, don’t be afraid to share. It’s happened to billions of people around the world, and what you share could help someone else not be a victim of the same thing.

Stay vigilant. You can’t stop what you don’t know.

Marc Evans

Learn more about Marc Evans and Fraud Hero at fraudhero.com. They have a lot of resources available, including a free action plan with quick tips and tricks to protect yourself now. Coming soon, they will also have a self-paced course that goes in depth on ways to protect yourself.