We are putting together the Spotlight on Recent Scams to educate our employees on scams that we have been notified of or that we have seen in our branches. If you have an idea for a spotlight edition, please let Danielle or me know.
Edition #1
Employment Scam & Small Business Scams:
Did you know that "employment scams" were the 3rd most reported fraud category to the FTC in the 1st quarter of 2024? When scammers pose as recruiters or employers offering employment opportunities it is called an employment scam. The scammers may steal the names of legitimate businesses and organizations. Unfortunately, these scammers will use legitimate resources like Indeed to prey on individuals seeking employment. The scammer then presents an employment opportunity to someone on Indeed to act as an unknowing money mule by “processing client payments”. The individual thinks they’ve been hired by a new company, and they need to create their own company to process the payments. Then the “new business owner” deposits a check that they have to send funds back to where they received it or to another account – acting as a payment processor. Thankfully, in the cases we have seen, the customer has only lost their time and a small amount of money to pay for their “business” to be created. Please take extra caution when opening a business account for an entity that is less than 30 days old, especially if the individual opening it is a brand new to FSB customer or they’re not local.
Iowa Registered Agent LLC allows you to form an LLC online for $199. They create all the documentation that the bank requires without stepping foot into an attorney's office AND the address can be registered as Iowa Registered Agent’s address instead of the real owner. That helps shield the owner’s identity just a little bit. This is just 1 example of a local resource that fraudsters may use, there are several online like LegalZoom.
Be diligent, pay attention. Watch for edition #2!
