Bank employees never come to collect your bank card at home!
5 min Reading time
Escalation of fraud involving card collectors in 2024
The banking sector renews its call for vigilance about fraud by so-called card collectors, also known as bank card phishing at home. In this type of scam, criminals pose as bank employees or police and try to visit your home to get their hands on your bank card and PIN. They also persuade victims to provide their other valuables (such as cash or jewellery) to bring them to safety. Be wary and remember that a real bank employee will never come to your home to collect your bank card, pin code or valuables.
How does fraud involving card collectors work?
Scammers pose as a bank employee and call to notify you that your bank card needs to be replaced because of a problem or because it has allegedly expired. Sometimes they also send a phishing message beforehand.
The fraudsters have an organised approach and do everything they can to gain your trust. They ask if they can visit your home to pick up your bank card. Sometimes they also ask to share your PIN or log in with internet banking (during which they watch along to see your PIN). In the end, the criminal has everything he needs to transfer money from your bank account: your bank card and your PIN.
In some cases, they take valuables such as bank cards, laptops, smartphones and even jewellery to supposedly ‘’keep them safe‘’. We also recently are seeing variations where the fraudsters do not visit your home as bank employees, but also pose as police officers.
The modus operandi can thus vary a little from one case to another. It is mainly the older population that is targeted by this form of fraud. Many of the scammers are young people aged between 15 and 25.
How to recognise card collectors?
- They ask for your bank card and pin code. A bank employee will never do this.
- They make every effort to visit your home as soon as possible and sometimes do so at odd hours: early in the morning, late at night, on weekends.
- They appear very soon after or even during telephone contact.
How to protect yourself as well as others?
- Be wary and remember that bank employees never come to your home to collect payment cards, cut them or solve certain payment problems. If it does happen, you are facing a scammer.
- Always keep the codes you create with a card reader (response codes) secret, just like the PIN of your debit card. They are strictly personal and your bank will never ask for them. Not even by e-mail, SMS or phone.
- Talk about it with family or friends so they are also aware of this type of scam.
Are you a victim anyway?
Take the following steps:
More information
- You can find more information on bank card phishing at home in this file.
- The Federal Police also issued a press release today to raise awareness about this common form of fraud (only in Dutch/French).
- Be sure to check out the video of our recent awareness campaign on Instagram and Tiktok which covers this form of fraud! (only in Dutch/French)
