If your bank texted you right now about suspicious activity, would you click? What if the call came from your daughter, and it sounded exactly like her?
Most of us still picture scams the way they used to look. A typo in every line. A prince who needs your help. An email address that’s obviously fake.
Those still exist. They’re just not the ones costing people the most.
The scams that work now look like the people and institutions you already trust. Sometimes, they even sound like them.
And they’re growing fast. In 2025, people reported losing $3.5 billion to imposter scams, according to the Federal Trade Commission, nearly three times what was reported in 2020. Imposters were behind nearly one in three fraud reports. (An imposter scam is exactly what it sounds like: someone pretending to be someone you’d trust.) Scammers posing as government agencies alone took about $920 million.
And this isn’t just a grandparent problem. Social media was the costliest way scams reached people in every age group under 80, and more than 40% of those losses started with something as ordinary as ordering from an ad.
Scams don’t need you to be gullible. They just need you to be busy.
October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month. As Chief Relationship Officer, a big part of my job is trust: earning it, keeping it, and making sure nobody borrows it to take advantage of you.
What a Believable Scam Looks Like Now
- A text or email from your bank about suspicious activity on your account
- An email that appears to come from your CPA, advisor, attorney, or a colleague
- A notice that looks like it’s from the IRS or the Secretary of State
- A request to change wire or payment instructions, like a “title company” emailing new wiring details right before a closing
- Someone telling you to move your money to “protect” it
- A call from someone you love who’s in trouble and needs money right now
Clients forward us emails that appear to come from the IRS, the Secretary of State, or a payroll provider and ask., “Is this real?” Sometimes the most legitimate things look sketchy and scams look legit. (We’d rather help you verify up front than figure out how to reclaim things after the fact.)
That call from a loved one deserves a second look, too. According to the FTC, all a scammer needs to clone a voice is a short audio clip, which they can pull from a video posted online, and a voice-cloning program.
None of these look suspicious. That’s the whole point.
The One Rule
When money is moving, slow the process down.
Almost every one of these scams runs on the same engine: urgency. Your account is compromised. The invoice is overdue. Your nephew or granddaughter is in trouble and needs bail tonight. Act now, before you have time to think or ask anyone else.
Pressure to act immediately is the tell. It’s also your cue to stop.
Checking can feel rude, or a little paranoid. But anyone legitimate can handle it. A real bank, a real CPA, and a real advisor can all wait ten minutes while you check. So can a real emergency, long enough for one phone call. A real request survives that call. A scam usually doesn’t.
Five Ways to Verify Before You Send
- Reach out on your own. Call the number on your statement, the back of your card, or in your contacts. Never the number in the message. Same goes for links: open the app, or type the website you already know into your browser.
- Agree on a family safe word. Pick a word or phrase only your family knows, and never post it anywhere. If someone calls in a panic sounding like your daughter, ask for it. If they can’t give it, hang up and call her directly on the number you already have.
- Confirm any change to payment details through a separate channel. New wire instructions, a new account number, a new way to pay a vendor. If it changed, verify it with a phone call to someone you know, not a reply to the email that announced it.
- Bring in a second person before you send. We teach our kids the difference between a good secret (the surprise party or a birthday present) and a bad one (anything an adult tells them to keep from their parents). The same rule works for grown-ups. Anyone who asks you to keep a money request from your bank, your spouse, or your family is telling you exactly what they are. Scammers count on you acting alone.
- Never move money to a “safe” account, and never share a verification code. No legitimate institution will tell you to move your money to protect it. And no caller, especially someone from your bank’s fraud department, will ever ask for the verification code.
If Something Looks Like It’s From Us
Every once in a while, we’ll email a link to update billing information. It’s rare, it’s usually connected to an expired credit card, and nearly every time, it comes directly from me. If one ever lands in your inbox and something feels off, call the office. We will never be offended that you checked.
If a message claiming to be from Tannery Company ever gives you pause, contact us directly before acting. Use the phone number or email you already have for us, not the one in the message.
Why This Matters to Us
When Michael and Tina started Tannery 25 years ago, they walked away from big-firm life because they wanted to know their clients, not just manage a long list of names and accounts.
Some of you, we’ve known for decades. We know your kids’ and grandkids’ names, where you took your last vacation, and exactly how you like to hear from us. Others, we’re still getting to know, and you’re still learning how we work. That’s exactly why it helps to know what normal looks like from us.
Either way, the move is the same. If something lands in your inbox and you’re not sure, send it our way before you act. Worst case, it was real and we had a two-minute conversation. Best case, you stopped a scam before it cost you anything. I’ll take that trade-off any day.
Katie
