FBI ranks Texas as second in US for internet crime losses

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Recently, in Fort Worth, a high school teacher's savings account was wiped clean after falling for a banking fraud. The FBI last year ranked Texas as the second in the country for internet crime losses, with over $1.3 billion reported in 2024.

KXAN anchors Will DuPree and Avery Travis spoke to Juan Rosales, a community banker at Amplify Credit Union, on how Texans can protect themselves and their money online. The transcript of this live Q&A has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Avery Travis: Talk to us about what the most common things you're hearing from folks you work with about these types of schemes and scams?

Juan Rosales: One of the biggest things and probably the most important one is people get their text. People get texts that they have an unpaid toll or an unpaid invoice, and a lot of times it gives them something to click on.

One of the things we always recommend to our members and people that we interact with is [not to] click on those. Some of those are not necessarily true or valid. Just do your research a little bit more when it comes to those. If you don't recognize the number or the information that's coming from. Ask a couple more questions.

Will DuPree: What role does artificial intelligence play in some of these schemes that are popping up lately?

Rosales: So AI is something that we haven't seen much interaction which, I think, is something that is going to be better for us. AI is definitely a scary tool that is out there that when it does get involved in fraud, can be something to keep an eye out.

But what I always like to remind people is, do your research when it comes to the interactions that are coming from unknown numbers, unknown interactions. If it is something coming from your financial institution, reach out to them, call them, just verify everything, just to make sure, and talk to a person on the line and be like, 'Hey, this is what happened. Is this legitimate?'

Travis: OK, over the years, we know we have seen criminals target older people who might not be as familiar with, maybe, those text messages or online portals, things like that. We do want to note the latest FBI report.

We saw that people over 60 suffered the most severe losses, but people in their 40s were actually the ones submitting the most amount of complaints to authorities. So talk to us about what you're seeing. Are you seeing or hearing from younger customers who might be targeted by some of these scams?

Rosales: So you are right, the older generation will fall a little bit more victim into these but when they start targeting the day to day workers and people that interact with emails on a day to day, it's just easier for them, because you fall into a loop where you're just checking your email, trying to go through it make sure you don't lose any money. So it's important to, again, just do your research and make sure that the links you're clicking on are valid and true to the things that are coming in.

DuPree: Maybe the biggest question for people out there is, what's the best way to keep yourself safe and your information?

Rosales: Always call your financial institution if you believe that you have been a victim of fraud. Always make sure that if there's a link that comes in or a phone call from an unknown number, don't answer it. Don't interact with it. If there's an email that comes to you from an invoice that was unpaid or an interaction that you don't necessarily recognize, probably don't click on anything on there and just delete it. If it names your financial institution or any financial institution, reach out to them directly. Make sure that you ask someone who knows what they're looking at so they can make sure that there's nothing there.