A phone scam was so convincing that veteran CBS News correspondent Matt Gutman admits he nearly walked into his bank and emptied his account before realizing something was terribly wrong.
In a video shared Friday on his X account, Gutman talked about receiving a call from someone claiming to work in his bank’s “fraud protection” department. The caller introduced herself by name, provided a badge ID and appeared to have detailed knowledge of his personal banking information.
Gutman joined CBS News in January. He is based in Los Angeles.
How the scam unfolded
“They seemed to know so much about me, about my bank account,” Gutman said. “And then they said, ‘Listen, we suspect that there is significant fraud activity at the bank branch where you bank, and what we need you to do right now-‘ We went through all the accounts, and we actually had some suspicious activity recently in my daughter’s account.”
The conversation took a more alarming turn when the caller outlined what she claimed was a plan to catch the criminals. “She gave me the names and then she said, ‘What we need you to do, in order to intercept these fraudsters, is to go into the bank and withdraw everything from your bank account’ – which wasn’t that much money at this point – ‘and take it with you so you have it in cash and that’ll trigger the fraudsters into action. That’s how we’ll be able to catch them.’ I thought, OK, that’s a little weird.”
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“Why would you use a regular citizen for something that seems like a law enforcement issue? But I said, you know, OK, and I went in there and she said, ‘But you can’t tell anybody at the bank that this is happening because they might be in on it,’” he continued.
That final instruction set off alarm bells. Gutman said the demand to keep bank employees in the dark made him realize he was dealing with scammers, despite how authentic the call had seemed. “You’ve got to be so careful,” Gutman said, “and some of these scams are incredibly sophisticated with people who clearly know what they are talking about, and speak like they are in the profession. I’m just blown away by how good that person was. I can’t get over this.”
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‘Not as savvy as I think I am,’ Gutman admits
In his July 10 posts, Gutman described the ordeal as “a very scary experience,” adding, “I’m not as savvy as I think I am.” He said he imagined walking out of the bank with thousands of dollars in cash “at a place known to those scammers because they directed me to my local bank branch and I was told this happens all the time and they either rob your car or they rob you.”
He also realized how absurd it was that “anybody would use a regular civilian for a sting operation at a bank. I’m a journalist and I have done scam stories so many times throughout my career and I came so close to falling for it.”
Another journalist lost $72,000 in similar scam
Another veteran TV journalist became the victim of a costly fraud scheme. Former KSEE 24 news anchor Alex Delgado told Your Central Valley she lost $72,000 after being targeted by scammers. “I feel dumb, that I should have been smarter about it. I am in a very vulnerable place,” Delgado said.
According to the report, Delgado received a suspicious text in March that appeared to come from the stock trading app Robinhood. The message claimed there had been suspicious activity on her account and instructed her to call a phone number to report the issue, as per NY Post.
