What happened to Matt Gutman? CBS News reporter reveals shocking phone scam; ‘Very scary experience’
The phone scam was so convincing that CBS News senior correspondent Matt Gutman admitted he almost walked into a bank and emptied his account before realizing something was wrong.
In a video shared on his X account on Friday, Gutman talked about receiving a call from someone claiming to “work” at his bank.Fraud The caller introduced his name, provided a badge ID and appeared to detail his personal banking information.
Gutman joined CBS News in January. he is stationed at Los Angeles.
How the scam unfolded
“They seemed to know me very well and knew my bank account,” Gutman said. “Then they said, ‘Listen, we suspect significant fraudulent activity at the bank branch where you deposited your money, and what do we need you to do now —’ We checked all the accounts, and there was actually some suspicious activity recently on my daughter’s account.”
The conversation took an even more shocking turn when the caller outlined what she claimed was a plan to catch the criminal. “She gave me the name, and then she said, ‘What we need you to do in order to intercept these fraudsters is go into the bank and withdraw all the money from your bank account’ – there wasn’t that much money at this point – ‘and then take it with you so you have the cash, which will trigger the fraudsters to take action. So we can catch them.’ And I thought, OK, that’s a little weird.”
“Why would you use a private citizen to deal with something that looks like a law enforcement issue? But I said, you know, okay, I went in, and she said, ‘But you can’t tell anyone in the bank that this is happening because they might be involved,'” he continued.
The final instructions set off alarm bells. Gutman said the requirement to keep bank employees in the dark made him realize he was dealing with a scammer, despite how genuine the calls seemed. “You have to be very careful,” Gutman said. “Some of these Scam Be very tactful with people who know exactly what they are talking about and speak like a professional. I was just blown away by how good that guy was. I can’t get over this. “
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Gutman admits: ‘I’m not as savvy as I thought’
In a July 10 post, Gutman described the ordeal as “a very scary experience,” adding, “I’m not as savvy as I thought I was.” He said he imagined walking out of the bank with thousands of dollars in cash “where the scammers knew, because they directed me to my local bank branch, which I was told happens all the time, and they either rob your car or rob you.”
He also realized that “anyone would use ordinary civilians to conduct sting operations at banks. I’m a journalist and I’ve reported on scam stories many times in my career, and I almost fell for it.”
Another reporter lost $72,000 in similar scam
Another veteran TV journalist has fallen victim to a costly fraud scheme. Former KSEE 24 News anchor Alex Delgado tells Your Central Valley she lost $72,000 after being targeted by scammers. “I felt stupid and that I should have been smarter about this. I was in a very vulnerable situation,” Delgado said.
Delgado reportedly received a suspicious text message in March that appeared to come from the stock trading app Robinhood. The message claimed there was suspicious activity on her account and directed her to call a phone number to report the issue. new york post.
