Social Engineering on Social Media

Fraudsters are known to impersonate people. Sometimes it’s celebrities and sometimes it might even be your friends and family. In other cases, they take it a step further and impersonate businesses that you regularly work with like NBT Bank.

As a corporate entity, fraudsters do their best to steal our company logos and photos to create their own profiles in an attempt to gain personal information from unsuspecting victims. Making the profile look more convincing makes it more likely for them to get money.

What are the red flags?

• The profile name doesn’t make sense. In the past fraudsters have used names like @hoofnbt or @nbtbank_ to impersonate our profile.
• The profile appears to be new and has very few posts or followers.
• You receive messages from the profile saying you’ve won a prize and they ask for personal or financial information to claim the prize.
• They are asking you to share online banking login credentials so they can log in on your behalf.
• Once logged in to your online banking, they ask you to confirm one-time passcodes so they can begin initiating transactions.
• While messaging the user on social media, they try to take the conversation somewhere else by giving you a phone number or separate social media account.

What should you do if you encounter one of these scam accounts?

• Do not connect with, follow or share any information with the fake profile. They could use a connection with you to validate their authenticity to others. That connection also enables them to access your images and information.
• Get receipts. Report fake social media accounts to ReportFraud@nbtbank.com and include the following information if you can.
  • Screenshots of the profile and any messages they may have sent to you.
  • The username used on the suspicious profile.
• Report the account and any messages received to the social media platform.
• After reporting, block the user.

Remember NBT Bank will never reach out to you to ask for personal or bank account information or one-time passcodes. If you believe you have fallen victim to this scam, report it to us by calling 1-800-NBT-BANK. Customer service representatives are available Monday through Friday from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.