Woman Warns Of Scam Targeting Huntington Bank Customers

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- We see texts and emails from scammers far too often, asking you to click a compromised link or share your personal information.

But one local woman says this spoof came in the form of a phone call from her bank, and it seemed so real that it nearly fooled her.

April Kenny, a customer of Huntington Bank, doesn't normally answer calls from 800 numbers. But in this case, she did.

"This one called me twice. So I thought it must have been important, so I answered it. It was an automated system. It started off by saying this is Huntington Bank with the fraud department. We've noticed possible fraudulent activity on your account," Kenny said.

The automated system even read Kenny the supposedly fraudulent charges and connected her with a customer service representative.

"The guy came on. He was talking to me, and he was telling me about the charges at Walmart. One was a Zelle payment," Kenny said.

But she's never used Zelle before. Then things really started getting weird when she asked the phony representative which one of her seven accounts were compromised, a question he was unable to answer.

When she pressed him even more, Kenny said, "That's when he really started to get ignorant and he's like we'll just make sure the charge goes through then if you don't want us to help you. That's when I hung up on him and called the bank."

The real Huntington Bank told her the call was indeed a spoof.

The customer service number the person called from matched the one printed on the back of Kenny's bank card. But as the bank told her, it will never call from that number because it's only meant to receive calls.

And Kenny said the hold music was another dead giveaway.

"It's very noticeable music. If you deal with Huntington Bank, you recognize it and this was not that," she said.

Huntington Bank sent KDKA the following statement:

"Huntington provides ongoing education to our customers. Huntington will never ask you for account numbers or passwords by phone, email, or text. If a customer receives a suspicious email, text, or call claiming to be from Huntington, hang up and call us at (800) 480-2265."

For more information about protecting your account, click here.