The more confident you are that you won’t be scammed, the more vulnerable you are.
Scammed, Phished, Hacked, or Conned… isn’t just for the vulnerable population anymore. It’s happening with higher intensity levels than we have ever seen before. While there is never a “foolproof” method of avoiding being victimized, there are a few steps that you can take to safeguard yourself and your loved ones.
“Take Action Now!” = Hit the Pause Button
I often tell people that I do not make financial decisions with a proverbial gun to my head, whether buying airline tickets, a car, or a home. If your sales approach requires me to take immediate action and make a buying decision, I will not.
We are motivated as a species to avoid loss and achieve gain. When we are told to “Act Now,” our brains begin to perceive the potential threat of loss and spur us into action. A sense of urgency simplifies our decision-making process when we are put under pressure—our brains look to avoid the threat and skip (neigh, RUN) past the stages of analysis to take immediate action to stop the threat of loss.
There are a thousand ways in everyday life that we see this in action in a manner that isn’t harmful, like a 5…4….3…2…1 countdown.
But evil individuals have also found a way to use this tactic to their advantage. Let’s walk through one example we had with a client recently,
Bob is typing away on his computer when a message pops up telling Bob that a threat has been detected. Bob needs to call a 1-800 number for technical support immediately so that they can isolate the hack. Bob calls the 1-800 number, and the IT professional explains that his computer has been hacked and that he needs to take action immediately before the hackers get all his data, passwords, and anything saved on the device. Bob listens, asks a few questions, and immediately acquiesces for fear that his information will be compromised and sold across the dark web any second.
Bob listens to the advice of the IT person, whom he can hear from the background noise and who is in some sort of call center. Bob follows instructions and logs into all his accounts, starting with Gmail, work, and credit cards and moving on to banks, so the IT Person can ensure that the threats were eliminated.
Next, the IT Person wants Bob to log in to his Brokerage Accounts as well – Bob pauses. Bob says, “You know what… I will contact my financial advisor’s office to verify…” The IT Person disconnects the call, but not before they gain access to most of Bob’s financial data.
Computer viruses and hacks are common, and it is likely that every individual will experience one in their lifetime. The Hackers disguised themselves as someone here to help and played on the immediacy of the threat and the need for Bob to act quickly. In this scenario, the person pretended to offer aid. They were there to help Bob and wanted him to ensure he had all the assistance needed to stop the threat.
Anyone who says you must take action now should make you hit the internal pause button. Naturally, your brain is going to want to slip past all the deep, analytical processing because it’s under a feeling of urgency. Be mindful of anyone stating you must act with immediacy in these scenarios.
Don’t tell anyone…
The pressure to keep quiet increases compliance in a victim, making you less likely to question the information once you have agreed to “guard” it.
Keeping something “private” is a high-pressure tactic of manipulation. Scam artists often use this by pretending to be a person sent there from some sort of formal agency (even posing as government employees) to aid. They ask you to keep the information secretary because they need your help as part of a bigger plan. It seems like something most people won’t fall for, but it isn’t – it’s real and can really happen to highly educated people like it did with Sue.
Sue received a phone call from someone claiming to be a federal law enforcement officer working on a cybersecurity task force. The caller had a convincing tone and provided what sounded like a legitimate badge number and agency affiliation. They told Sue that she had come up in an investigation into a network of identity theft and financial crimes.
The “Officer” said their team was conducting a covert surveillance operation in her area and believed a criminal suspect would contact her in the coming days. They emphasized that Sue was not in trouble but might unknowingly be a part of a larger scheme. If she were willing to help, she could assist them in catching the suspect in the act.
The “Officer” added, “You don’t have to help, but if you do, you must not tell anyone—not family, friends, or your bank. It could compromise the investigation.” This tactic created a sense of exclusivity and urgency while isolating Sue from sources that might have warned her.
Wanting to do the right thing and support law enforcement, Sue agreed to help.
A few days later, Sue received a phone call from someone identifying themselves as a representative of a financial institution. The caller (the real scammer) told her that her account had been compromised and that she needed to take specific steps to protect her money. She started by withdrawing $25,000 and writing a check to a specific entity (e.g., “XYZ”). She was told to leave the check in her mailbox for secure pickup by a “courier.”
Confused but remembering her instructions, Sue immediately called the original “Officer,” who confirmed that this was exactly the kind of contact they had anticipated. He said they were tracking the suspect and needed her to go through with the transaction so they could gather evidence and make the arrest. He reminded her not to alert anyone again, as it could interfere with the operation.
Sue complied. The scammer retrieved the $25,000 check from her mailbox without incident.
Later that week, the scammer called again, claiming they needed another $25,000 to resolve the issue fully. Sue again contacted the “Officer,” who told her they had enough evidence to catch the suspect red-handed—but only if she continued to cooperate one last time.
Still believing she was helping with a federal operation, Sue withdrew another $25,000 and followed the same instructions.
The Suspect got Sue, a highly educated individual, to give them $50,000 within a three-week period.
How was Sue long conned into doing so?
Authority & Legitimacy: The scammer posed as a federal agent, using jargon, urgency, and fake credentials to seem legitimate.
Predictive Setup: They “predicted” a scammer would contact Sue, so when it happened, it reinforced the belief that the operation was real.
Isolation: By telling her not to share the situation with anyone, they cut her off from logic checks or advice from others.
Fear of Interfering with Justice: They created a false sense of duty—Sue didn’t want to be the reason a criminal escaped justice.
Escalation of Commitment: Once Sue had complied the first time, it became psychologically harder to question the process or say no the second time.
How you can help protect yourself
- Pause When Urged to Act Fast
Scammers use urgency to short-circuit your logic. If someone says, “Act now or else…”, take that as your cue to pause and verify before doing anything.
- Never Share Personal or Financial Info Over the Phone
Government agencies, banks, and legitimate companies will never call you asking for sensitive info like your SSN, account numbers, or passwords. If you think it is a legitimate business inquiry, tell the person you will call them right back. Hang up the phone, research the institution’s phone number, and call them directly. Note: Pay attention to who you are calling. Make sure you don’t just call the first business that pops up in a Google search, but the actual business.
- Don’t Trust Caller ID or Email Addresses
Scammers spoof numbers and domains to appear official. Always independently verify the sender before responding or clicking links. Most commonly, the address will look like a legitimate one but there will be one letter or digit off. Close enough for your brain to fill in the missing information and assume it is for accuracy. Example: Y__R BRAIN W_LL F_LL IN THE BL_NKS
- Be Suspicious of Secrecy
If you’re told “don’t tell anyone”, that’s a red flag – immediately. Scammers isolate victims to keep them from getting second opinions or warning signs from others.
- Verify With a Trusted Source
Before sending money, giving personal info, or clicking a link, call or visit the company or agency using a verified phone number or website. This could also mean calling a point of contact that you are familiar with to verify the information.
- Don’t Pay With Gift Cards or Wire Transfers
No legitimate business or government entity will ask for payment in gift cards, cryptocurrency, or wire transfers. These are scammer favorites because they’re untraceable and easy for consumers to initiate.
- Use Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)
We get it. It’s a pain. Add a second layer of security to your accounts. 2FA helps prevent hackers from accessing your accounts even if they steal your password.
- Install Call Blocking & Scam Protection Tools
Use apps or carrier-based services that block known scam callers and phishing texts. Don’t answer calls from unknown numbers—let them go to voicemail.
- Trust Your Gut
If something feels off, it probably is. Scammers prey on emotion, confusion, and politeness. You can hang up, walk away, or say no.
Advanced Steps You Can Take To Potentially Remove Your Info From The Dark Web & Reduce Scam Risk
Services like DeleteMe, Aura, LifeLock, or Experian IdentityWorks are among the most effective ways to proactively protect your personal information from being exploited by scammers.
These services specialize in monitoring the dark web for sensitive data, such as Social Security numbers, email addresses, and financial account details, and alerting you if your information is found. Many also offer tools to remove your data from data broker websites, provide identity theft insurance, and offer real-time alerts to help you act quickly if a threat is detected.
Outsourcing this constant surveillance to professional services may reduce your risk of falling victim to scams, identity theft, or phishing attacks. These tools are especially valuable in a world where cybercrime is becoming more sophisticated and personal information is bought and sold online every day.
1. DeleteMe (by Abine)
What it does: Scans data broker sites and removes your personal information (name, address, phone, etc.) from places scammers use to collect profiles.
Bonus: Regular privacy reports and ongoing deletion.
Trusted for: Personal info scrubbing and reducing doxxing risk.
2. Aura
What it does: Provides identity theft protection, dark web monitoring, VPN, password manager, and credit monitoring all in one.
Bonus: $1M identity theft insurance.
Trusted for: Family-level protection and real-time dark web alerts.
3. LifeLock (now part of Norton)
What it does: Monitors for SSNs, financial accounts, and dark web listings. Offers identity restoration support and insurance coverage.
Bonus: Can monitor investment and bank accounts for fraud.
Trusted for: Comprehensive ID theft protection backed by Norton’s cybersecurity infrastructure.
4. Experian IdentityWorks
What it does: Tied directly to your credit profile, it offers dark web scans, fraud alerts, and FICO score tracking.
Bonus: Monitors up to 10 emails or SSNs for dark web exposure.
Trusted for: Credit-driven monitoring and fast alerts.
These tools help monitor and remove information from high-risk sources like the dark web and data broker sites, giving you peace of mind that someone is actively working to safeguard your identity.
This can be an incredibly daunting subject matter to keep up on – we get it.
You have more control than you think. While the rise in scams and identity theft can feel overwhelming, taking proactive steps to protect your personal information puts the power back in your hands.
Empowerment comes from action; every step you take strengthens your defenses and reduces your risk. You don’t have to be a cybersecurity expert to stay safe – you just have to be informed, intentional, and prepared.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Micah Shilanski, CFP®, is a distinguished financial planner known for his deep commitment to providing exceptional advisory services to his clients. As the founder of Plan Your Federal Retirement, Micah has dedicated his career to helping federal employees understand and optimize their benefits to ensure a secure and prosperous retirement. His expertise is widely recognized in the industry, making him a sought-after speaker and educator on financial planning and retirement strategies.
Micah’s approach is client-centered, focusing on creating personalized strategies that address each individual’s unique needs. His work emphasizes the importance of comprehensive planning, incorporating aspects of tax strategy, investment management, and risk assessment to guide clients toward achieving their financial goals.Micah Shilanski 00:00
Stop, it is a scam. Don’t pass go, don’t collect $200 they’re stealing your money. Hi, I’m Micah Shilanski with Plan Your Federal Retirement, and I gotta say, I’ve been seeing a lot more of suspicious activity going on. I’ve been hearing about from clients, from other advisors that I coach. I’ve been seeing more of it in the news, and I want to take a minute to reach out to you guys and say, hey, we need to be hyper vigilant online so you can keep your money. Now, if you’re one of those people that think you’re not going to get scammed, you’re probably higher on the list of getting there or not, because maybe we’re not looking at things as suspicious as we need to. Now I’m going to share a couple of stories with you and some experiences that we’ve had, and kind of how we like to filter whether something is a potential scam or not, and this isn’t a foolproof list, unfortunately, the scammers are good, no, they’re not good, they’re evil, they’re both pond scum, right? It’s ridiculous, but very, very effective at what they do. So their tactics are always changing, but there’s always going to be a combination of a couple things that we see, which generally identifies it’s a scam, and they’re trying to steal your money, and again, they are extremely effective at this. They have gone after some very smart individuals that know better, and they get caught up in this emotional plea that happens, and then all of a sudden, they’re taking money out of their bank account, and the money’s gone, and it’s 10s of 1000s of dollars, and then there’s this, all this embarrassment, I can’t believe I did this, they don’t want to share it with anyone, nope, we got to talk about these things, mistakes do happen, right? So if you’re caught up in it, I am my heart goes out for you, I am sorry, we have to talk about these things, we have to let other people know so they cannot be scammed as well. So let’s go into a couple of different ones. So a couple of things that kind of happen is, number one is there’s you’re going to see in this kind of story is going to be some emotional play. These scam artists are extremely effective at getting you on this emotional roller coaster, this whipsaw of emotions, which gets you to do things that in your rational brain you wouldn’t have done because rationally, when we sit back and think about things like this, doesn’t make any sense, I’m not going to do it, but when your brain is hijacked, right and now all of a sudden that your brain is kind of kicking in, and the amygdala is kind of kicking in, and you got more emotional side that’s going on with it, your rational brain isn’t functioning as well to see this, that’s why in hindsight, it makes super easy, because we’re kind of past a little bit of emotions, we’re like, oh my gosh I can’t believe I ignored these warning signs. So couple of examples that have happened, and again, I’ve talked to people all across the country, and it’s kind of the same is you’ll get either a computer virus and you’ll have you call a number, or someone will contact you, et cetera, and be like, hey, your information’s been compromised, your computer’s been infected, and you know what? You’re actually you’re part of this bigger scam, you’re part of this bigger undercover operations that the federal government has been investigating, and they were going to indict you on all of these crimes, but if we act now, you can be saved okay, you’re really good guy, they’ll talk to you over multiple days, don’t tell anyone, this is another thing, right? Can’t tell anyone about this, right? If you tell anyone, then all of a sudden, you’re going to go to jail, the police are going to come, they’re going to seize all of your assets, because we’re actually investigating your local police department who’s caught up in this as well, and so they’re playing these emotional things, and in your mind, your rational brain is your listeners like, this doesn’t happen, this happens, right? This happens, and they’re very good at how they communicate this. I’m giving you this in a really quick debrief, they spend days building the story with you and really kind of pulling you in. They have you talk to multiple people so it feels like, oh my gosh, this isn’t one person from overseas scamming me, this is a legit us organization, they pose as people working for the federal government, right? So all of a sudden, when someone is playing with your emotions that, oh my gosh, you’re gonna go to jail unless you do something right now, that’s a sign, right? That’s generally not the way we’re sure I’m not in law enforcement, but talk to a few people in law enforcement, said, generally not the way that this things go down and they can, I say, you cannot tell I gotta act right away, and you cannot tell anyone about this. That is a warning sign, right? If you’re working with a financial planner, if you’re working with a CPA, and somebody calls you and somebody calls you and wants you to do some financial transactions, is do not talk to your financial advisor about this, do not talk to your CPA about this, that should go to a level 10 warning right, right up there at the top. Why can’t I talk to these other trusted professionals about this to make sure it’s a good idea? And then the third thing the warning sign, they’re gonna have you remove money from your bank account, or they’re going to ask you for compromising information, as in your bank account numbers, your routing numbers, etc, I don’t give those out, right? I’m kind of a pain in the butt about this, I love paying for things on credit card, why? Because my credit card is compromised, I’m not responsible for fraudulent charges, right? It’s an inconvenience, but doesn’t cost me money when people take money out of my bank account, now, all of a sudden, this could be a problem for me, so I want to make sure, as I’m going through this, that I’m keeping my information as private as I can. So do I use checks? Sure, but I only leave enough money in my checkbook that, God forbid, if it gets compromised, I’m okay losing that money. I keep most of my money in savings and money markets, and I end up having to transfer it in so I cover things into clear things, because I don’t want to leave too much money exposed, right? So if someone is again, asking you for that private information of your bank account number, or they’re asking you to withdraw cash in and put it somewhere else online, this is a another giant warning sign. Whether it’s it’s Bitcoin that you’re going to put the money into for a secure currency, it’s not right, or if it’s going to be withdraw cash and meet someone at the bank, and we’re going to securely move your money because your bank’s compromised, we’re going to move money out, these are all massive warning signs, right? So there’s there’s schemes and scams going around like that. There’s also other ones that are going out there that says, hey, with this amazing investment opportunity, but you have to do it right now, otherwise you are going to lose out. Warning Sign, huge warning sign, right there. I have been part of eight figure deals as things I’ve been advising on, deals, big deals, small deals, et cetera, and I’m not the one that knows all about these things, et cetera, but one thing I will tell you, in all of my experience with this and everyone I’ve talked to or heard et cetera, there is never a time where you have to make a decision in the next 12 seconds or you’re gonna miss this giant opportunity. So anytime they’re playing on this FOMO right, fear of issing out on the investment side, if, oh my gosh, this stock is gonna double, you gotta put money into it right now, don’t worry, we’ll worry about the paperwork later, we’ll take care of that at a future time, you have to put this money in this right now, that fear of missing out again, think about what they’re doing. They’re playing with your emotions, they’re not reasoning with the rational side of your brain, they’re trying to hijack that rational sign by getting those emotions involved and getting you to not think about these transactions, right? That’s a huge warning sign. We’ll worry about the paperwork later. We are a paperwork industry, on the finance side, right there, we have a lot of paperwork, and there is no circumstance legally that I can think of from legally doing a transaction with a client that we do paperwork later. Nope, we do paperwork now. We do paperwork right away. There’s a whole slew of things that we have to comply with, and it all starts with glorious paperwork. So I would never do a transaction with a client and says, hey, send over a bunch of money, we’re going to get invested going to get invested, don’t worry, we’re going to do the paperwork later. No, that’s breaking laws, several of them off the top of my head, right? So anytime they say you have to do it now, you’re going to miss out. Don’t worry, we’ll figure out the paperwork later, there’s a catch to this. The other thing, think about the guaranteed rates of return that people are doing, and my dad, years and years ago, he actually used to be an auditor and inspector on oil rigs, and companies would bring him in in order to spec out kind of venture deals and things that are going on, and say, hey, is this a good idea or not? So there’s some fascinating stories from that experience in the 70s, but one of the things he always told me, it says, Micah whenever I was looking at these oil deals, the ones were like, oh my gosh, it’s going to make money, it’s going to be fantastic, it’s going to fantastic, it’s going to be amazing, I’d always ask them how much of their money that they’re investing into it, because, you know what, if they knew it was going to make money, why would they want your money? The only reason they want your money is because they don’t want to put theirs at risk, so that’s the same thing here, right? If all of a sudden you have this great opportunity that’s going to be there, it’s so secret you can’t tell anyone, why are they telling you about it? Why wouldn’t they just put their own money into this great opportunity and take advantage of it, right? So think about these things when they come up. So anytime someone’s working with you and they’re hijacking that rational side of your brain, your emotional side is kind of clicking in a lot, and you’re making a lot of decisions, like you know, or you’re told not to talk to anyone about it, you’re told not to do paperwork or worry about this later, right? I have to move money right now, or you’re going to miss this deal. These are huge, huge warning signs, stop, do not go any further. Stop your communication. Then go talk to a third party, right? A financial planner, a CPA, I don’t know if attorney would help this or not, right, but somebody who could look at this and be able to say, hey, is this a real thing or not? There’s a way to vet them. Now, there’s a lot of these companies that are coming out that are posing to work for other companies. They’re opposing to be endorsed by Dave Ramsey, but they’re not. They’re just taking the name of someone who’s endorsed by Dave Ramsey and saying they work for that company. So we’re having to more and more due diligence now to make sure that your money stays with you, right? I want you to keep your hard earned money for your retirement. So going to be really careful these scams if they happen to you, my heart goes out, these are definitely things, people professionals that are exceedingly good at what they do, unfortunately and in robbing people of their money, so this is something that can happen. If it does happen to you, change bank accounts, right? Don’t say, oh, that’s done, nope, any account they were associated with, yank all the money out today, open a new account, put that money in. Is it a pain in the butt? Absolutely right? But we don’t know how much access they have, and you want to make sure that you are taken care of. Another thing to think about is it kind of as you transfer this money over into the new bank account that’s set up, it’s also filing a police report, filing an FBI report as well, letting them know what’s going on. Is something going to happen immediately? No, but we need to let authorities know, and so they can start working on this as well. So I want you to take this information you, use it, share this information along. I want to make sure that you get every penny that you’ve earned for your benefits, for your retirement, etc, and I want to make sure you keep all of the money that you’re supposed to keep, and it doesn’t get stolen away by a ridiculous scam at the end of the day. Till next time, Happy Planning!