Scam of the day – March 28, 2026 – Iran War Scams: How Imposter Bank Alerts Are Tricking Victims and Stealing Identities

by | Mar 27, 2026 | Scam of the day

Scammers are always taking advantage of what is going on in the news to use it as a hook for scams and the war in Iran is no exception.  A number of Iran war scams have begun to proliferate and as with many scams, they use emotional appeals to lure people into being scammed. Here is an imposter scam presently circulating. In the days ahead I will discuss other Iran war scams.

Scammers, posing as bank representatives, target their victims by email, text messages or by phone telling them that fraudulent charges have been made on their bank account and then ask for your personal information including bank account numbers or Social Security number to verify your identity.  If you provide the information, you will become a victim of identity theft and your bank account can be accessed by the scammers.  Alternatively, the scammers may tell you that in order to protect your funds, you need to withdraw them from your bank account and send it to the phony government agency scammer using a cryptocurrency ATM in order to protect your funds.  Of course, anyone doing so just ends up sending the scammer all of their money.

Here is an example of a phony text message used in scams such as this:

“Alert: We detected unusual charges from Iran on your debit card. Your account has been temporarily frozen. Reply YES to speak with a Federal Trade Commission officer who will verify your banking details to stop further withdrawals.”
TIPS
Phony text messages like this can be particularly problematic if you have signed up to receive text message alerts from your bank. Whenever you receive a text message you can never be sure who is really sending it to you, so you should never call a telephone number indicated in the text message, provide information or click on links in such text messages which may either download ransomware malware on to your phone or keystroke logging malware that can lead to your becoming a victim of identity theft.

Banks do not call, text or email their customers asking for personal information.  You should always be skeptical of anyone asking for such information.  Of course, if you receive a text message that appears to come from a bank at which you do not have an account, you can be confident it is a scam. If the text message provides for you to respond to stop future texts, don’t do it. Sending such a message to a scammer merely alerts them to the fact that yours is an active phone number.

Another step you should take to prevent your account from being taken over even if someone manages to get your user name and password is to set up dual factor authentication on your bank account.

The best course of action when you receive such a text message, if you have a concern that it may be legitimate, is to merely independently contact your bank to determine whether or not the text message was a scam, but be careful that you do not misdial the telephone number of your bank as some scammers purchase phone numbers similar to those of legitimate banks and credit card companies hoping that they will receive calls from unwary consumers who may have merely misdialed the telephone number of their bank or credit card company.

It is also important to remember that no legitimate government agency or law enforcement department will ever ask you to withdraw funds and send it to them and anytime you are asked to transfer funds for “safekeeping” through a cryptocurrency ATM, it is a scam.

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