Beware phone scams offering fake high-yield CDs

Scammers are going old-school to rip off investors in a recent scheme involving telephone calls and offers of high-yield bank deposits, a major financial regulatory organization warned this week.

In an Investor Alert issued this week, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc., a self regulatory organization for the financial services industry, warned of a scheme in which imposters pose as officials of high-profile brokerage firms pitching certificates of deposit with “yields well above the best rates in the market.”

The perpetrators attempt to collect personal and financial details from victims under the guise of conducting the transaction.

“Armed with this information, the fraudsters may attempt to steal the person’s identity of money from an account,” the Finra alert states.

One dimension that potentially makes the con more effective is that the scammers have used the name of at least one authentic broker and have targeted customers of the firm.

“If you are not sure that the person on the other end of the line is a legitimate representative of your firm, quickly end the call and get in touch with your firm’s customer service center using the contact information on your account statements of the firm’s website,” Gerri Walsh, Finra’s senior vice president for investor education, said in a statement.