Online banks and banking service providers offer desktop and mobile banking services without actual brick and mortar physical branches. Because these banks don’t have to pay for the cost of maintaining buildings, they are often able to pass the savings on to their customers in the form of higher interest rates for bank accounts and CDs. Forbright Bank and Everbank are examples of two good online banks offering attractive interest rates. However, their rates don’t compare to the terrific high interest rates being offered by scammers posing as online banks. Scammers will set up phony websites for online banks whose sole purpose is to get you to provide your name and Social Security number which will lead to your becoming a victim of identity theft and luring you into wiring them money that you will never see again.
TIPS
It is important to remember that merely because a Google Chrome or other search engine search brings up a website at the top of the page doesn’t mean that it is legitimate. Some scammers are adept at manipulating the search engine algorithms so that the phony website gets prominently featured in a search and other times the scammers merely pay for a high position in a search engine search. Either way, as I always say, “trust me, you can’t trust anyone.”
One place you can go to verify if a bank is legitimate is the Bank Find service of FDIC which will allow you to see if the online bank you are considering is legitimate and if the URL used is of the legitimate bank. Here is a link to that service.https://banks.data.fdic.gov/bankfind-suite/bankfind
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