Impostors posing as Wells Fargo reps over the phone were so convincing that Tampa resident Moses Harmon almost fell for their scam, ready to withdraw $15,000 and hand it over.<\/p>\n
In fact Harmon, who runs a landscaping business, had reached the point that he was standing in front of a teller at his local Wells Fargo branch.<\/p>\n
But as he shared with Tampa Bay 28\u2019s investigative team, something didn\u2019t feel right.<\/p>\n
The scammers he\u2019d been speaking with on the phone told him to keep his phone turned on so they could hear what he said when he was inside the bank. (1)<\/p>\n
Harmon did as he was told, but when the teller passed him a withdrawal slip, he did something the scammers couldn\u2019t hear. He turned the slip over and wrote: \u201cI think I\u2019m being scammed.\u201d<\/p>\n
The teller called for the bank manager, who instructed Harmon to turn off his phone immediately.<\/p>\n
Harmon had a narrow escape and empathizes with anyone who gets taken in. That\u2019s why he\u2019s sharing his story.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just think we need to be sharing information because there\u2019s so much crazy stuff going on right now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how he got hooked in the first place and how to protect yourself from cash bag scams.<\/p>\n
It starts with a text or notification, typically asking you to confirm or deny an unusual charge to your bank account. In Harmon\u2019s case, the con artists sent a text asking if he had made a $2,800 charge at Best Buy. That\u2019s the bait.<\/p>\n
If you reply (whether your reply is \u2018yes\u2019 or \u2018no\u2019), they\u2019ve already hooked you.<\/p>\n
Read more: Are you richer than you think? Here are 5 clear signs you\u2019re punching way above the average American\u2019s wealth<\/a><\/p>\n They follow up with a phone call, claiming to be a bank rep \u2014 as they did in Harmon\u2019s case. To reinforce their cover story, they read you a list of your actual financial transactions.<\/p>\n How do they know? Scammers can use your SIN number (acquired on the Dark Web) and hack into phone-based bank systems to pull a list of your transactions, as they did with Harmon.<\/p>\n \u201cNever before has a scammer been able to tell me exactly what my banking history was,\u201d Harmon said.<\/p>\n This adds a sense of legitimacy to the criminals\u2019 storyline.<\/p>\n \u201cI was 100% sure it was them,\u201d Harmon said.<\/p>\n Story Continues <\/p>\n Once scammers gain a target\u2019s trust, they create a false sense of urgency and fear.<\/p>\n They will tell a victim that their bank account is compromised and the bank needs their help to protect it.<\/p>\n Sadly, the \u201cprotection\u201d is actually where victims endanger their savings, as they are told to withdraw thousands of their hard-earned dollars in cash and hand it over to scammers or send it to fraudsters via prepaid cards or a cryptocurrency. After the money is sent out, recovery is unlikely.<\/p>\n Falling for such a con job is more common than you might think. Roger Grimes, who works for the cybersecurity company KnowBe4, said his own bank manager recently informed him that their branch bank stopped two to three scams a day.<\/p>\n Florida Bankers Association president Kathy Kraninger told Tampa Bay 28 that banks are doing all they can to teach customers and staff how to recognize increasingly sophisticated scams nationwide.<\/p>\n As of July 2025, 73% of U.S. adults had experienced some kind of online scam or attack, according to the Pew Research Center. (2)<\/p>\n \u201cThis is organized crime now,\u201d Kraninger said. \u201cThis is not individual, one-off scammers.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a multi-billion dollar criminal enterprise.<\/p>\n In 2024, Americans lost $12.5 billion to fraud, a 25% increase over 2023, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC<\/a>).<\/p>\n Don\u2019t share any financial details with people you don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n If you receive a text about a fraudulent or questionable charge, don\u2019t respond to the text directly \u2014 even if the number looks legitimate, it can be spoofed so that it looks real.<\/p>\n Confirm the facts by calling your bank directly, using the number on the back of your debit or credit card or the contact number listed on your bank\u2019s official website.<\/p>\n The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) advises<\/a> being on guard if anyone asks you to withdraw or transfer money, particularly via a text, email or online notification. If they ask you to buy cryptocurrency or gift cards, that\u2019s a big red flag.<\/p>\n If you feel rushed to perform an unexpected financial action, share your concerns with someone you trust or a bank manager. Depending on the situation, a second set of eyes might help you avoid a scam \u2014 as the bank teller and bank manager helped Harmon.<\/p>\n Whether or not you actually fall victim to the scam, it\u2019s good to report it to your bank and FTC so they can investigate, build a case against the scammer and educate the public on the latest scams out there.<\/p>\n And trust your gut, like Harmon did, as he contemplated the reality of handing $15,000 over to a stranger.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was too hard to get the money in there to just walk in there and get it and bring it out and give it to somebody,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our editorial ethics and guidelines<\/a>.<\/p>\n Tampa Bay 28 (1<\/a>); Pew Research Center (2<\/a>)<\/p>\n Join 200,000+ readers and get Moneywise\u2019s best stories and exclusive interviews first \u2014 clear insights curated and delivered weekly. Subscribe now.<\/a><\/p>\n This article originally appeared on Moneywise.com<\/a> under the title: Tampa man nearly lost $15K to \u2018cash bag\u2019 scam \u2014 until he listened to his gut. Here\u2019s how to protect your privacy<\/a><\/p>\n This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Impostors posing as Wells Fargo reps over the phone were so convincing that Tampa resident Moses Harmon almost…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[25153,8370,8372,25155,25151,25152,25154,135,1526,137,136],"class_list":["post-36433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-bank-manager","tag-dave-ramsey","tag-jeff-bezos","tag-kathy-kraninger","tag-moses-harmon","tag-robert-kiyosaki","tag-scammers","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}