Most people are aware they shouldn’t send money to a stranger, which is why fraudsters often take a different tack: pretending to be a person or company you’re familiar with. To stay vigilant and avoid becoming a victim, it helps to know exactly how these imposter scams work.
The scammers’ goal is to get you to let your guard down, says Kenneth Conner, vice president of scam policy and communications at Citi. “They use believable scenarios when impersonating someone to make you feel more at ease doing something you shouldn’t, like buying gift cards and providing the information on the cards to a third party or sending a deposit to ‘yourself.’"