Telephone Scams

Since the beginning of 2022, there has been an increase in telephone scams against customers from a number of Boston area banks. Using available technology, fraudsters can spoof legitimate phone numbers and email addresses to make you believe they are calling or emailing from your Bank. This technique is used to gain your trust and to trick you into giving them your personal account information. Scammers may even pretend to work for Commonwealth Bank. If you provide details in response, scammers may be able to take control of your accounts.

Recent scams have involved gaining access to online banking accounts and setting up fraudulent transfers.  This scam involves phone calls that appear to be from the bank asking to verify recent transactions on your account in order to help prevent potential fraud.  Once information is provided and verified, scammers set up unauthorized account transfers through Person-to-Person (P2P) payment systems such as Zelle, Venmo and CashApp.

You should always be cautious of anyone contacting you – by phone or email – for personal banking information including your Commonwealth Bank account information or online banking credentials, including user names,  passwords and one-time passcodes.

Scammers will often try to pressure you to share your banking information.  They can be very convincing at times, so it is important to be on your guard. Please keep in mind, Commonwealth Bank will never contact you to ask for your online banking credentials or account numbers. If you are ever in doubt about the validity of a caller, hang-up and call us at 617-364-6000 to verify any request you receive for that type of information.