I have a friend who is a compliance officer at a smaller bank. She said they are seeing a rash of scam online applications, seemingly targeting older individuals who are less likely to already have online accounts. They think this rash is from the Equifax breach a few years ago.

They try and catch them and stop the process - they caught 15 last week. Remember this is just a small local bank, so who knows what's going on at the large national banks?

Something to be aware of!

Can you explain how the scam works?

My mom just got a notice last week from her bank Chase that they wanted her to know they automatically deducted $1322.00 from her checking to be paid to her mortgage payment. The problem is she doesn’t have a mortgage.

Smowkowna, Mike just explained how it works...they got our data through a breach somewhere, probably Equifax, and are using the information to open accounts, borrow money, etc.

Because they are targeting older Americans who don't spend a lot of time online, the scam may go unnoticed for a long time. Vee, it's not a matter of being online. In this case, it was a matter of NOT being online.

I got an email from my bank today warning me about the scam. I assume it is the same type of scam. My bank is KeyBank. - What happens is that somebody calls you. They have spoofed their caller ID to make it look like KeyBank is calling. They tell you that they want to warn you of an alert on your account. They say that they will send you a 4-digit code to you phone, please repeat the code over the phone.

My guess is this - they know your phone number from a breach, as mentioned by WMH. So, they want to open an account in your name, and they begin to open an account. When they do this, Keybank will send you a text with a code, that you have to enter. But the scammers initiated the code text. When you get it, if you share it with them over the phone, they can then use it to open the account.

Vee: EVERYONE uses the "cloud" these days. You can't avoid it. Again, this came from an Experian breach online. Your information was in there regardless of if you think you use "the cloud" or not.

Remember: "The Cloud" is just someone else's computer. :)

- John...