FBI: Beware Scammers Telling You to Cut Up and Hand Over Bank Cards

The FBI is warning about a scam that involves tricking people into cutting up their bank cards and sending the remains to fraudsters. 

The scheme may sound counterproductive. But according to the FBI’s alert, the scammers tell victims to cut up their bank cards while leaving the vital EMV chip inside intact, with the goal of reusing it to access their accounts. 

The scam involves fraudsters impersonating a bank employee via a phone call. “The impersonator then asks about recent transactions to lead the customer to believe there is a fraudulent activity involving their account,” the FBI says. 

To stop the fraudulent activity, the impersonator will tell the victim to destroy their bank card but save the EMV chip so that it can be returned to the bank. An accomplice will then be hired to pick up the chip from the victim’s home. 

The FBI notes that in some cases, “the accomplice may ‘assist’ the customer by cutting the card and leaving the chip intact, before departing with the remnants.” In addition, the fraudsters will use various manipulative techniques to dupe the victim into telling them the bank card’s PIN number. With both the EMV chip and PIN number, the scammers can then proceed to use an ATM to break into the victim’s bank account.    

(Credit: ADragan via Getty Images)

Although the US began mass adopting EMV/chip cards a decade ago to help thwart fraud, the technology can’t do much if the chip itself and the PIN number fall into the wrong hands. The FBI issued the alert after one Las Vegas woman reportedly lost $9,000 to the scam. This included the fraudsters sending a man to the woman’s home who was careful to cut her bank card in two, but not the EMV chip.

On Reddit, another user said they encountered the scam, which first appeared as a text message pretending to be from their Wells Fargo bank, alerting them that their credit card transaction to purchase airplane tickets had been canceled.

“The text format looked the same as the texts I usually get from Wells Fargo. Immediately after, I received a phone call from (what appeared to be) a Wells Fargo Caller ID number,” The Reddit user wrote: “They told me that my card was declined and asked me if it was me attempting the transaction.”

The impersonator then told them to “cut my card in half, and place it in my mailbox for FedEx to pick it up.” Fortunately, the Reddit user didn’t fall for the scam after making a phone call to a real Wells Fargo representative. Still, the user added: “The uneasy part is that these people knew where I lived and they would have came to pick up my card in the mailbox.”

The FBI doesn’t know how the fraudsters are learning about victims’ personal information. The agency merely said: “At this time, it is not believed specific demographics are being targeted.”

As a result, users should be on guard against unsolicited phone calls and texts that claim to come from your bank. If you’ve encountered the scam, the FBI is encouraging victims to report the incident to the agency’s internet crime complaint center while using the #BankChipHack hashtag. 

“Those affected should also contact your financial institution account providers immediately to regain control of your accounts, change passwords, and place alerts on your accounts for suspicious login attempts and/or transactions,” the alert added.