Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
I was scrolling through Instagram, on my lunch break of course, when I noticed an ad from Liz Ann Sonders. Ms. Sonders is the Chief Investment Strategist at Charles Schwab. In plain English, she is the head economic honcho at Schwab. The esteemed financial guru that thousands of financial advisors and millions of Schwab clients rely on for honest and accurate economic information.
I raised an eyebrow when I saw an ad appearing to be from Liz Ann Sonders, complete with her picture, claiming that she “previously served as the Chief Investment Strategist at Charles Schwab…”.
According to the ad, she now gives specific stock advice, something she would never do in her role at Schwab. In just one month, you too could a make 45% return and create instant wealth if you subscribe to her stock selection and market timing services.
But wait, there’s more… All you have to do to change your financial life forever is provide your sensitive, personally identifiable information.
Obviously, this ad, and others like it, is fake and a scam to get people to provide information that thieves can use to steal your identity or drain your account balances.
But it looked so real
The ad was so convincing that I contacted Schwab’s corporate relations department to see and confirm that Liz Ann was still on the team at Schwab, and that she hadn’t sold out to start her own Jim Cramer-like stock selection subscription service.
I was assured that was not the case. The ad I saw was from an imposter account. Direct links to Schwab’s only official accounts: Schwab’s experts and Schwab’s social media can be found here.
Honestly, I was a little embarrassed that I didn’t see through this ruse immediately. At least I was smart enough to do a little homework before blindly accepting the validity of the ad. If I can be (almost) fooled, so can you. An NBC News article reported that imposters took in $667 million in 2019. No doubt, today’s figures are much higher.
Advances in AI will only make it more difficult to tell fact from fiction.
Liz Ann Sonders isn’t the only one
Social media imposters are everywhere. Facebook and Instagram both estimate that about 5% of its accounts are fake. Some estimates are much higher.
Shortly after I saw the fake Schwab ad, I received a (legit) email from the Social Security Administration (I am subscribed to an actual email service from them) warning people about fraudsters using fake Social Media accounts to steal people’s personal information.
You can read that article here: How To Spot A Fake Social Security Social Media Account. It describes the specific things to look for when evaluating a social media account. In this case, the key identifier is that the Social Security Administration will NEVER ask you for your Social Security Number or other sensitive information through social media.
Frankly, neither will Charles Schwab, Liz Ann Sonders or any other reputable organization ask for your personal info in this way.
What to do
If you receive a fake ad or someone attempts to get you to enter your personal info, the best approach is to ignore the ad. NEVER share your information or click on links from questionable sources.
Better still, report suspicious ads or Instagram or Facebook profiles to the social media site hosting the ad. For example, Instagram outlines the steps in their Help Center. For a quick link, click here.
When in doubt, just move on. Don’t click links, download articles, or provide any information. If you can, contact the actual real source and verify the authenticity of the request with them – ideally over the phone. If you ever see anything suspicious purporting to come from Mike Branch, Focus Financial or anything appearing to come from me or my team, or Schwab, Royal Alliance, OSAIC, Pershing or any of the other companies we represent, please contact us directly before you take any action.
To discuss any of the topics in this blog or to learn more about how we can help you Cross The Bridge To A Confident Retirement, please contact me through my web site mikebranch.net, call me directly at 651-379-3935 or email me at mpbranch@focusfinancial.com.